Financial Burden and Cost-Related Communication in Chronic Disease Management

Project Title

Financial burden and Cost Communication in the Care of African American Women with Asthma

Funder

American Lung Association

Study Dates

7/1/2012 – 7/30/2013

Publications

Patel MR, Wheeler, JRC. Physician-patient communication on cost and affordability in asthma care: who wants to talk about it and who’s actually doing it. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 2014;11(10):1538-44.
Patel MR, Caldwell C, Song PXK, Wheeler JRC. Patient perceptions of asthma-related financial burden: public vs private health insurance in the United States. Annals of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, 2014;113(4):398-403.
Patel MR, Nelson BW, Iddeen E, Caldwell CH. Beyond co-pays and out-of-pocket costs: perceptions of health-related financial burden in managing asthma among African American women. Journal of Asthma, 2014 Jul 4:1-6.
Patel MR, Caldwell CH, Iddeen E, Clark NM. Experiences addressing health-related financial challenges with disease management among African American women with asthma. Journal of Asthma, 2014 Jun;51(5):467-73.
Patel MR, Shah KS*, Shallcross ML*. A qualitative study of physician perspectives of cost-related communication and patients’ financial burden with managing chronic disease. BMC Health Services Research, 2015; 15:518.
Patel MR, Sanders GM, Yang Y*, Brown RW, Hafeez K. Racial differences in guideline recommended care among women with asthma. Chronic Diseases International, 2014;1(1): 6.
Patel MR, Brown RW, Clark NM. Perceived parent financial burden and asthma outcomes in low income, urban children. Journal of Urban Health, 2013 Apr;90(2):329-42.

About

The major goal of this project was to describe characteristics of individuals with asthma who perceive financial burden with managing their condition, and relationships between communicating about cost concerns and self-management behaviors. We used secondary data from a randomized trial of women managing asthma, and conducted focus groups.

We found that perception of financial burden goes beyond out-of-pocket costs and includes health insurance challenges and social risk factors. Communication about cost with providers is low, although many people would like to have these conversations.