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How much does Cancer treatment cost

How much does Cancer treatment cost?

chibueze uchegbu | May 28th, 2022


Are you among the curious ones wanting to know the cost of cancer treatment in the USA? Don’t worry this article is a perfect fit for you. Cancer is a disease that causes specific cells in the body to grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body.

Cancer can develop almost anywhere in the human body, which contains trillions of cells. Human cells normally divide and grow to form new cells as needed by the body (a process known as cell division).

Cells die as they age or become damaged, and new cells substitute them. When this orderly process fails, abnormal or damaged cells multiply and grow when they should not.

Cancerous tumors infect nearby tissues and can spread to other parts of the body. Cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell development, and tumors can be benign or malignant. The benign tumor is limited to one location, but the malignant tumor spreads to other places of the body.

Cancer is the largest cause of death worldwide, accounting for 10 million deaths in 2020, or one in every six people.

The cost of life-saving treatments is rising in tandem with cancer survival rates. Many Americans are struggling with the physical and emotional impacts of high out-of-pocket medical bills, which sometimes reach $100,000 per month. Worse, some people are utterly priced out of the possibility of a remedy.

How Cancer Develops

Cancer is a genetic disease, which means that it is caused by changes in the genes that control how our cells function, particularly how they grow and divide.

Furthermore, Cancer-causing genetic changes can occur as a result of so many reasons, namely errors that occur during cell division, DNA damage caused by harmful environmental substances such as tobacco, smoke chemicals, and ultraviolet rays from the sun, or they were passed down from our parents.

Normally, the body eradicates cancerous cells that have damaged DNA. However, as we age, our bodies ability to eliminate cells with damaged DNA declines. This contributes to the increased risk of cancer later in life.

Every person’s cancer has a special set of genetic changes. Additional changes will occur as cancer progresses. Different cells within the same tumor may have different genetic changes

Cost of Cancer Treatment

Although AARP The Magazine claims that the typical overall cost of cancer treatment is at the $150,000 level, this is not the case.

Total out-of-pocket expenditures are determined by a variety of factors, including insurance coverage, cancer types and treatments, treatment frequency, and cancer center prices.

As a result, estimating the cost of cancer therapy for all types of cancer is impossible. A full-time wage or salary worker earns an average monthly income of $3,600 before taxes.

Some chemotherapy and immunotherapy infusions cost a third of this amount. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the weekly median income for a full-time wage or salary worker was $900 in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2018.

Even with a normal employer-sponsored health insurance plan, a patient with a 25% coinsurance rate would pay $2,500 per month out of pocket for a cancer medicine that costs $10,000 per month. That amounts to over 70% of the average American’s monthly earnings.

Cancer Treatment Hospitals in the USA

Below, you can find some of the top cancer treatment hospitals in the USA;

  • 1. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, they treat cancer patients of all types, from the most common to the most rare. For adults and children, they provide the following services:

Inpatient surgery in 28 cutting-edge operating rooms,

Cancer treatments that are cutting-edge, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and other infusions; internal and external radiation; and cutting-edge clinical trials, Specialized inpatient and outpatient care for children and young adults, Interventional radiology and other minimally invasive image-guided therapies

Ultrasound, MRI, CT, and PET scans are among the cutting-edge imaging services available.

Our 13-bed outpatient Urgent Care Center provides 24-hour care, A retail pharmacy where specialty prescriptions can be filled and refilled, Access to a blood donation center where family, friends, and caregivers can donate blood or platelets for their patients.

Contact: +1 212-639-2000

Address: 1275 York Ave, New York, NY10065, United States.

  • 2. The University of Texas- MD_Anderson Cancer Center

They only treat cancer and have seen a wide range of cases. Their doctors treat more rare cancers in a single day than most doctors see in their entire careers. This means that the receiver will receive expert care regardless of their diagnosis.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is one of the world’s largest cancer centers. For more than seven decades, they have worked to eradicate cancer. Their extensive experience benefits every aspect of patient care. Since 1990, when the U.S. News & World Report began its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has been ranked as one of the top two cancer care hospitals in the country.

Their doctors are frequently named among the best in the country by services such as Best Doctors in America. They have more nurses per patient than many other hospitals in the country, so the patient gets the best attention and care possible.

They are known around the world for using and developing cutting-edge diagnostic technology. This allows doctors to pinpoint each patient’s specific cancer and tailor treatment for the best possible outcome.

Contact: +1 877-632-6789

Address: 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX77030, United States

  • 3. The James Cancer Hospital & Solove Research Institute

The OSUCCC – James has been designated as a Magnet facility as part of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program.

This voluntary hospital recognition program is regarded as the highest honor an organization can receive for providing excellent patient care and professional nursing practice.

The Joint Commission, the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, and the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy all fully accredited the OSUCCC – James. The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute is a transformational facility that integrates scientific research, education, and innovative patient care as the patient-care component of Ohio State’s cancer program.

Every inpatient floor has research and education spaces, enhancing their bench-to-bedside approach to patient care and providing patients with more options.

The OSUCCC – James has over 200 oncologists, each of whom specializes in a specific type of cancer.  Their genetic and molecular research allows us to better understand each patient’s cancer and develop and deliver the most effective targeted therapy, resulting in better outcomes, fewer side effects, and more hope.

Contact: +1 800-293-5066

Address: 460 W 10th Ave, Columbus, OH43210, United States.

  • 4. USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute

As an academic medical cancer center, USA Health offers the most comprehensive and advanced cancer treatment available.

Here are some of the current treatments and amenities available at the Mitchell Cancer Institute – Fairhope: Medical oncology and radiation oncology, 16 recliners for chemotherapy infusion patients, Radiation, therapy that is cutting-edge, Clinical studies, Genetic analysis, Groups of support, Sessions of education.

Their certified genetic counselor at MCI offers consultations and customized evaluations to people who want to understand their personal and family cancer risks. As a result, people can make more informed decisions about their health.

At USA Health, they believe that the best defense against cancer is to take every precaution possible. That is why they have a robust and active cancer prevention program, the region’s only one of its kind. At Mitchell Cancer, they devote an entire division to this endeavor.

Contact: +1 251-990-1850

Address: 1047 Fairhope Ave, Fairhope, AL36532, United States

  • 5. Mass General Cancer Center

Mass General Cancer Center, a member of Mass General Brigham, is one of the leading cancer care providers in the United States. It is an integral part of one of the world’s most distinguished academic medical centers.

The Mass General Cancer Center is consistently ranked as one of the top cancer centers in the country by U.S. News & World Report. In recognition of the hospital’s exceptional nursing care, Mass General’s nurses were the first in Massachusetts to receive Magnet status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Also, the Cancer Center’s dedication to cancer eradication is fueled by scientific research conducted as part of one of the nation’s largest hospital-based research programs. The Mass General Cancer Center fosters innovation in all stages of cancer research through a powerful synergy between laboratory scientists and bedside physicians.

Every year, nearly 400 clinical trials are conducted by physician investigators Mass General Cancer Center is proud to be a founding member of a Harvard Medical School consortium designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.

Contact: +1 617-726-5130

Address: 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA02114, United States

Conclusion on How much does Cancer treatment cost

Lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and mesothelioma are among the malignancies with the highest treatment expenses.

Most cancers, according to research, can be avoided. Our cancer risk is influenced by the lifestyle choices we make, the foods we eat, and our levels of physical activity.

Frequently Asked Questions about the How much does Cancer treatment cost

See below for the answers to the some of the most asked questions about the How much does Cancer treatment cost;

  1. Is cancer curable?

There are no cures for cancer, but there are treatments that may help. Many people are treated for cancer, live their lives, and die from other causes. Many others are treated for cancer and still die from it, despite the fact that treatment may extend their lives by years or decades.

  1. What are the top ten cancers?
  • Skin cancer is
  • Skin cancer is classified into two types:

non-melanoma and melanoma.

  • Lung cancer
  • Prostate cancer
  • Breast cancer
  • Colorectal cancer
  • Renal (kidney) cancer
  • Bladder cancer
  • Non-lymphoma Hodgkin’s
  • Thyroid cancer
  • Endometrial cancer
  1. What are the four kinds of cancer?

There are different types of cancer:

  • A carcinoma develops from the skin or tissue layer on the surface of internal organs and glands.
  • Sarcomas are malignant tumors. Sarcomas build in the connective tissues, which support and connect the body.
  • Lymphomas
  1. What are the four cancer stages?

Stage I cancer is limited to a small area and it has not spread to lymph nodes or other tissues.

Stage II: The cancer has transitioned but has not spread.

Stage III: The cancer has spread to lymph nodes or other tissues and has grown in size.

Stage IV: At this stage, cancer has spread to other organs or areas of your body.

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Best Small business health insurance costs.jpg

Small business health insurance costs

chibueze uchegbu | April 8th, 2022


What do you know about Small business health insurance costs? All of these variables contribute to the overall expense of providing group health insurance coverage, which goes above and above the already high rates.

So, how much does small business health insurance cost, and what can a small business owner do if health insurance prices seem unaffordable given the company’s financial situation?

In this post, we’ll go through the prices that small businesses may expect to incur while providing group health insurance, as well as how businesses can keep their expenditures under control.

Procedure for obtaining small-group health insurance?

Small-group health insurance plans are available to businesses with fewer than 50 full-time comparable employees, and these plans can be used to provide health insurance to their employees.

Insurance companies that specialize in small groups evaluate risk based on a group of employees rather than on a single individual.

As a result, they can provide lower premiums than many workers would be able to obtain if they acquired their health insurance.

For small-group health insurance, unlike some other types of health insurance, you can browse for coverage at any period of the year.

How much are the premiums for group health insurance?

The average annual group health insurance prices for single coverage are approximately $7,470, while the average annual family coverage costs are approximately $21,342.

67 percent of small businesses pay between 25 percent and 50 percent of the premiums for family coverage, which amounts to approximately $455 to $910 in monthly expenses for a family of four.

Premiums for certain types of plans, such as preferred provider organization (PPO) policies and health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, are more expensive than for others.

In addition, premiums are more costly in the Northeast and Midwest areas of the United States, as well as in particular businesses such as transportation, communications, and utility services.

Without a doubt, increasing the amount of cost-sharing required from employees can help firms save money on their budgets.

The addition of these criteria, on the other hand, increases the likelihood that eligible employees will refuse to participate in the plan.

It is possible that the organization will not be able to give the policy at all if a large number of employees refuse to participate.

The majority of states demand that at least 70% of employees engage in a group health insurance plan to be valid.

What are the factors that contribute to an increase in healthcare premiums for small businesses?

Requirements for contributions from employers

The majority of insurers require the employer to cover at least half of the cost of their employees’ insurance premiums.

Additionally, if you want to be eligible for the federal small-business health care tax credit, you must pay 50 percent of your employees’ insurance costs.

You can use the 50 percent requirement is a simple approach to estimate how much that will cost you to provide health insurance to your employees.

According to the average yearly cost of health insurance for a person at a small firm, which is $7 813, you would be required to pay approximately $3 910 each year for a single employee in this scenario.

Small business health insurance costs

Businesses can lower their costs by having employees pay a greater share of their health insurance premiums; nevertheless, there are hazards associated with this practice.

Generally speaking, most states demand that at least 70% of employees join a group health plan. If too many workers refuse to participate, your company may be unable to provide the policy.

  • Profile of a member of staff

Under the Affordable Care Act, the price of small-group insurance premiums cannot be influenced by the medical history and pre-existing conditions of the insured’s family members. Only the following elements can influence premiums:

  • Your employees’ and their dependents’ ages, as well as their marital status.
  • Employees’ smoking and eating behaviors.
  • Your employees’ homes.

If the majority of your employees fall into a specific age category or if a significant number of them smoke, for example, you may be subject to higher insurance costs as an employer.

  • The Type Of Insurance Policy You Select

Affordability is divided into four categories under the Affordable Care Act: bronze (least costly for employers), silver, gold, and platinum (most expensive for the employer). These categories are determined by the amount of money that the insurer gives to the plan, not by the quality of treatment provided.

A platinum plan, for example, would cover an average of 90% of the cost of care, with the employee paying an average of only 10% of the total cost of the care received. With a bronze plan, the company would pay an average of 60% of the premium, with the employee contributing an average of 40%.

Small organizations can also provide employees with the choice to choose from a variety of metal tiers rather than just one while maintaining the per-employee cost constant.

Typical types of health insurance plans, including preferred provider organizations and health maintenance organizations, are classified according to their metal tiers.

PPOs are often more expensive than HMOs, but they also allow access to a bigger network of providers than do HMOs.

  • Industry And Geographical Location

Some places have higher premiums than others, and some areas have lower premiums. Furthermore, because health-care expenses might fluctuate from one year to the next, your employer’s contribution may not be stable over time.

Specific businesses, like transportation, health care, and utilities, have significantly higher employer premiums than the general population.

What is the average amount of time it takes to manage a group health insurance policy?

An additional, less evident cost associated with the implementation of group health insurance plans is the time required to administer the plan, which is in addition to premiums.

For most small businesses who are striving to accomplish as much as possible with as few employees as possible, the effect of this administrative expense may even outweigh the cost of the premiums paid.

Let’s go over the three most important aspects that contribute to the time and labor requirements of administering a group health plan:

  • The organization must observe ongoing regulatory developments.

Providing a group health insurance plan is not an option for many small firms, and having a complete human resources department to handle the administrative chores associated with doing so is just not an option.

A previously overburdened employee must take on the role of go-to person for informing employees on who is qualified for coverage, which local facilities are in or out of network, and what is included under the plan—all while keeping up with changing regulations.

It’s easy for some requirements to slide through the cracks if no one is keeping an eye on them all the time. This might result in your plan being found to be out of compliance, which can result in heavy fines of up to thousands of dollars.

  • Difficult communication procedures

Group health insurance programs also necessitate a time-consuming and complex communication procedure between employers, insurance companies, and their respective employees.

Employers are frequently compelled to act as a “middleman” between insurance carriers and employees, coordinating time-consuming and disorganized back-and-forth contact every time an insurance issue arises, which may be extremely inconvenient. These are the kinds of hours that would be significantly better spent working for your company.

  • Excruciating yearly renewal processes

The final point to mention is that the annual benefit renewals that go with group health insurance policies are complicated and take a significant amount of time to complete.

Employees who filed a higher-than-usual range of health insurance claims the previous year will almost certainly face higher costs or terms changes as a result of the high-cost claims they lodged the previous year.

When faced with a change in benefit plans, you must decide whether you will simply accept the changes, argue with the provider, or seek to identify new plans and practices that better align with their budget and benefit objectives. You may need to interact with benefits brokers to accomplish this, which will take time.

Investing just four hours per month of one employee’s time in benefits administration and five days during benefits renewal results in an extra 88 hours of the employee’s time which could have been spent in other ways and perhaps more constructively. Small businesses can save a lot of money by outsourcing their benefits administration.

Where can you get health insurance for your small business?

It is possible to obtain small-group health insurance for your employees in one of the following ways:

  • Obtaining insurance directly from an insurance company in your state

When you work with an insurance firm, the broker will shop for plans that are tailored to your company’s needs.

They’ll charge a commission (usually a portion of the premium), as well as a broker’s fee if you choose to use their services. You can purchase health insurance through some payroll programs, such as Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll, that are hosted on their sites.

  • Using the SBHOP:

SHOP is the federal government’s insurance alternative for small firms with fewer than 50 full-time comparable employees, according to the Small Business Administration (up to 100 in some states).

A minimum of 70% of your eligible employees must participate in the SHOP health plan that you provide, according to state law in most cases. A small-business health-care tax credit of up to 50 percent of premium costs may be available to businesses with less than 25 employees who meet certain criteria.

  • Employing the services of a Professional Employer Organization.

A professional employer organization (PEO) is a corporation that you can contract to administer perks on your behalf. PEOs have the legal authority to lawfully become your employees’ co-employers.

PEOs have a combined employment pool that is similar to that of a larger corporation because they serve as co-employers for several small businesses.

This provides them with access to insurance prices that are more competitive than those available to small firms on their own.

  • Qualify for the QSEHRA.

This is a type of arrangement for small firms that provides compensation for qualified healthcare expenses incurred by employees. Employees are not permitted to make contributions through their paychecks, and the terms of the employer’s contribution to each worker’s QSEHRA must be consistent.

A small-group health plan for your employees is purchased through an insurance carrier that provides rates based on the state in which your firm is located and the number of full-time equivalent employees you have on staff.

What strategies can businesses use to keep their healthcare costs under control?

Unsurprisingly, many small businesses determine that they are unable to bear these expenses. However, merely eliminating health benefits will not solve the problem because it would result in an increase in staff turnover and associated expenses that will be considerably greater.

Many small businesses are discovering that (health reimbursement arrangement) HRAs are among the most cost-effective solutions to provide a high-quality health benefit while staying within their budgetary constraints.

Instead of paying premiums, an HRA allows an organization to provide employees with a monthly or yearly allowance that is within its financial capabilities.

Employers compensate employees for personal insurance premiums and qualified out-of-pocket medical bills up to the amount of the maximum allowance, which is not subject to tax.

Because the employer controls the price of health benefits, employees often have a greater selection of insurance plans from which to choose, enabling them to purchase the plan that is most beneficial to them and boosting their satisfaction with the health benefits program.

The best part is that, unlike group health insurance plans that take hours of administration each month, HRA administration software such as PeopleKeep allows the plan to be handled in minutes per month, saving time and money.

FAQs about Small business health insurance costs

  • Who Qualifies for Small Business Health Insurance?

While state regulations vary slightly, firms with less than 50 employees are generally allowed to acquire group health insurance coverage.

  • How Do I Get Small Business Health Insurance?
  1. Purchase through a representative
  2. Personally file a claim to an insurance provider.
  3. Purchase via a purchasing partnership
  • How Does the Tax Credit for Small Businesses Work?

The tax credit is intended to assist small firms in providing health benefits to employees. You may receive a credit equal to up to 50% of the premiums paid. There are a few prerequisites to being able to participate:

  1. Employ fewer than 25 people
  2. Pay a minimum salary of less than $54,000
  3. At least 50% of employees’ premiums must be paid, and all full-time employees must have qualifying coverage.
  • Takeaway on Small business health insurance costs

Group health insurance premiums can be extremely expensive for small businesses, not to mention the time and resources required to administer the program.

Given this, it’s simple to understand why health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) are becoming a popular option, as they allow companies to provide a far more flexible medical benefit while also keeping expenses under control.

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