Cancer Navigation Program Disclaimer

Services and Eligibility

Patient Advocate Foundation’s (PAF) Cancer Navigation program, a free service provided in partnership with the Florida Health Care Coalition (FLHCC) and participating employers, designed to support eligible employees and their dependents who have a diagnosis of cancer, more effectively navigate the treatment journey through education about employer-based benefits, identification and connection to valuable community based programs and resources and provision of individualized navigation support for situational issues that impact their ability to access and afford care, maintain their employment and benefits, and sustain their routine cost of living needs.

In order to qualify for the Cancer Navigation program, the employee must be enrolled in a group health insurance plan sponsored by a participating employer as an employee, spouse or dependent and have a diagnosis of cancer, any type, any stage, and must be receiving active treatment for the disease, must have received treatment for the disease within the last six (6) months, or will begin treatment for the disease in the next 60 days. PAF’s Cancer Navigation program provides extensive benefit education as well as assistance with resolving a broad variety of patient and caregiver concerns including: (1) access to care (e.g., assistance in obtaining prior authorization approvals; second opinions, insurance appeals; insurance plan review); (2) cost of care (e.g., co-pay assistance, premium assistance); (3) cost of living expenses (e.g., rent, utility, transportation, food/nutrition assistance programs);(4) safety net program support (e.g. SSDI, LIS, Extra Help enrollment assistance) and (5) employment-related issues (e.g., FMLA, short-term and long-term disability). PAF’s Cancer Navigation program identifies sources of assistance, including employer assistance and/or benefit programs, other charitable organizations and government-sponsored programs, and assists patients in enrolling in these services as appropriate.

Applicants must be enrolled in a group health insurance plan sponsored by a participating employer to qualify for the Cancer Navigation program. PAF will not consider the identity of any physician, provider, supplier of items or services, drug therapy, or services or supplies being utilized when assessing whether an applicant is qualified for navigation assistance through PAF’s Cancer Navigation program. Further, navigation assistance is not dependent on the use of a particular drug, particular supplies, or particular provider or suppliers and patients are free to switch drug therapies, treating physicians, pharmacies, and suppliers at any time without affecting their continued eligibility for cancer navigation assistance from PAF.

Qualifying patients are provided one-on-one assistance by PAF’s Cancer Navigation program until their education needs are met and their access to care, cost of care, cost of living, or employment and/or benefit-related issues are resolved. Cancer Navigation assistance is provided to the extent the Cancer Navigation program has capacity to provide assistance.

Information Collection, Use, Disclosure Ownership and Sharing

Patient Advocate Foundation is committed to ensuring patient’s privacy is protected. It is the policy of Patient Advocate Foundation that patients’ individually identifiable information, including protected health information, collected from patients, or their authorized representatives, in the course of PAF providing assistance through its Cancer Navigation Program, as well as all other foundation programs, may only be used after authorization by patients, or their representatives, as follows:

1. By PAF and its representatives to provide services and support to patients seeking assistance from and enrolled in PAF programs, including those administered by PAF as a service provider or program partner, to respond to applications for assistance, resolve issues presented by patients seeking assistance from PAF and to evaluate the effectiveness of the Cancer Navigation Program.

2. Representatives may include PAF employees, both permanent and temporary, directors, officers, PAF legal counsel, contracted third party service provider organizations, specific contacts within organizations contracting PAF as a program administrator and specific contacts within organizations partnering with PAF to provide the Cancer Navigation Program.

3. Patients’ contact information may be used in the future to share printed and/or electronic communications from Patient Advocate Foundation and the PAF Case Management program. If the patient does not wish to receive print and/or electronic communications from PAF or Case Management, he/she may contact the program at 1-888-720-6899 and request to have his/her contact information removed from the mailing list.

4. Patients’ data may also be used in de-identified aggregated reports. This means that information patients provide to the Cancer Navigation program may be combined with other patients’ data to prepare reports analyzing patient needs and the effectiveness of the Cancer Navigation program. PAF will only use de-identified patient data, i.e., patient data where all identifying data terms like the patient’s name, identifying numbers, etc. have been removed in these aggregated reports.

5. PAF is the owner of the personal information collected through PAF programs, including the Cancer Navigation Program, PAF may share provide de-identified reports to FLHCC. In addition, PAF may share individually identifiable information, including contact information and acknowledgement of receipt of services form the Cancer Navigation Program, with a participating employer for the purposes of data analysis regarding the impact of the Cancer Navigation Program. PAF will not share protected health information with participating employers, however.

6. PAF collects information that patients voluntarily provide or that is given to us by patients’ authorized representatives and providers, including but not limited to family members, caregivers, guardians, medical providers, pharmacies, health care facilities, diagnostic laboratories, medical equipment providers, health and welfare benefit plans, insurance companies, benefit administrators and employers.

7. PAF will not sell or rent patients’ individually identifiable information, including protected health information, to anyone.

8. PAF will not share personal information with any third party outside of the organization other than as necessary to resolve issues presented by the patients, to process an application for assistance, to process a claim being made against a financial award that has been provided, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Cancer Navigation Program, as required by a partnering organization, for PAF operations/management or as is required by law.

A PDF copy of this disclaimer can be found here.


To learn more about PAF’s Patient Privacy Policy, please visit our website at http://www.patientadvocate.org/patient-privacy to view the full policy.