Cancer treatment is associated with financial hardship for many patients and families. Screening for financial hardship and referrals to appropriate resources for mitigation are not currently part of most clinical practices. In fact, discussions regarding the cost of treatment occur infrequently in clinical practice. As the cost of cancer treatment continues to rise, the need to mitigate adverse consequences of financial hardship grows more urgent. The introduction of quality measurement and reporting has been successful in establishing standards of care, reducing disparities in receipt of care, and improving other aspects of cancer care outcomes within and across providers. The authors propose the development and adoption of financial hardship screening and management as an additional quality metric for oncology practices. They suggest relevant stakeholders, conveners, and approaches for developing, testing, and implementing a screening and management tool and advocate for endorsement by organizations such as the National Quality Forum and professional societies for oncology care clinicians. The confluence of increasingly high-cost care and widening disparities in ability to pay because of underinsurance and lack of health insurance coverage makes a strong argument to take steps to mitigate the financial consequences of cancer.

中文翻译：

---

是时候增加财务困难筛查作为质量衡量标准了吗？

对于许多患者和家庭来说，癌症治疗与经济困难有关。目前，大多数临床实践并不包括筛查经济困难和转介适当的资源来缓解困难。事实上，临床实践中很少发生有关治疗费用的讨论。随着癌症治疗费用持续上升，减轻经济困难的不利后果的需要变得更加紧迫。质量测量和报告的引入成功地建立了护理标准，减少了接受护理的差异，并改善了提供者内部和之间癌症护理结果的其他方面。作者建议开发和采用经济困难筛查和管理作为肿瘤学实践的附加质量指标。他们建议相关利益相关者、召集人以及开发、测试和实施筛查和管理工具的方法，并倡导国家质量论坛和肿瘤护理临床医生专业协会等组织的认可。日益高昂的护理费用以及由于保险不足和缺乏健康保险覆盖而导致的支付能力差距不断扩大，这两者结合在一起，有力地证明了采取措施减轻癌症造成的经济后果的必要性。