Dr. Thomas Churilla on Insured Versus Uninsured Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Getting Treatment
Churilla said the majority of patients on a national level had insurance, with only 15% of patients utilizing medicaid and 5% of patients being uninsured.
Thomas Churilla, MD, resident physician, Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses patients with head and neck cancer, and how insurance status effects their treatment.
Churilla said the majority of patients on a national level had insurance, with only 15% of patients utilizing medicaid and 5% of patients being uninsured. He adds that patients who are on either medicaid or are uninsured are more likely to be younger when compared to their insured counterparts, be unmarried, of a minority race, and live in counties with low income or education statistics.
Churilla adds that patients who were either on medicaid or were uninsured were also less likely to undergo external beam radiation therapy for their head and neck cancers, with 20% of medicaid patients and 30% of uninsured patients falling into that group.
