OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Cancer treatments take a huge toll on patients, but one Oklahoma lawmaker is hoping to ease that burden with a new bill he introduced that would require insurance to cover devices designed to reduce chemotherapy side effects.
“Obviously, we would want to minimize the cost,” Oncologist and former Oklahoma State Medical Association president Diane Heaton said.
Heaton knows the side effects patients see from chemotherapy treatments all too well. It’s a burden on both their wallets and their bodies.
“Chemotherapy, you know, as we all know, can oftentimes cause hair loss, but what we don’t realize as much is that can cause neuropathy at the hands and feet to point that patients are unable to write. Often, it’s very painful,” she said.
Neuropathy is nerve damage that can disrupt signals between the brain and body. It’s often a lifelong issue that can cause a patient to be disabled.
“I can remember people who would play the piano at church who were then unable to, and that was a huge loss for that community and the patient,” Heaton said.
Cooling therapies are treatments used to minimize those side effects.
“There’s some wonderful, you know, series of papers that even came out last year showing the effectiveness of this therapy,” Heaton said.
A newly introduced bill by Sen. George Burns (R-Pollard) would require them to be covered by insurance. Things like cooling caps in the picture you see attached to this story can cost into the thousands of dollars out of pocket for patients when used throughout a course of chemotherapy treatment. Coverage under this bill would keep them from being subject to yearly deductibles, co-payments, or co-insurance limits.
“I think it’s huge,” Heaton said.
Burns issued a release on the bill that can be found here.
In part of a statement, Burns said the devices should be “accessible, not treated as optional or luxury items.” The bill includes safeguards to comply with any federal insurance laws.
NewsNation affiliate KFOR will follow this bill as it makes its way through the legislature. If it passes, it has an emergency clause that would put it into effect immediately.
