This may come as a surprise that 80% of U.S. cancer patients receive their cancer care in Community cancer centers.Community cancer centers are Independent and NOT affiliated with a Hospital or University. Community cancer centers are often closer to home, more convenient, more personal, and more likely to offer all of your services under one roof by a smaller group of staff that are all working as one team. Community cancer centers are definitely more cost-effective for patients and society.

Community cancer centers are able to provide the same FDA-approved standards of care and often sooner given their ability to more efficiently have their staff obtain insurance authorizations and financial coverage. Furthermore many community cancer centers are able to offer MORE cutting-edge and innovative Clinical Research Trials than even University based cancer centers that are bogged down with bureaucracy. It can often take a Hospital or University based cancer center a year or more to open the same clinical trial that it would only take a matter of weeks for a Community cancer center to open and start accruing patients to the same trial. Some patients don't have time to wait!

Community cancer centers are typically closer to home or in your community. That allows more family and friends access to join you for your appointments. Community cancer centers are smaller making life easier for cancer patients that are already dealing with so much. Patients don't need to park in a parking garage and end up lost in the vast hallways of a hospital and asking staff that they have never met for help. At a community cancer center, patients will park outside the front door, walk in, and be greeted by the same staff and smiles that have greeted them since they started as a patient. The entire staff knows that patient and is working as a team under one roof to make that patient's experience less stressful. Your physician visit, labs, scans, prescriptions, financial help, and a cup of coffee are all in the same office.

Community cancer centers and Hospital/University cancer centers do NOT cost society the same for the exact same treatments. As a 2020 example, a patient received a drug called Avastin at UCC which cost UCC around $7,500 to purchase the drug from a pharmaceutical wholesaler, and Medicare paid UCC for the drug and to administer the drug approximately $8,000. The same patient later received the same drug and dose of Avastin at an Omaha Hospital and Medicare was charged $40,000 for the exact same treatment. Much of the U.S. financial crisis is due to rapidly rising costs of healthcare, especially expensive cancer treatments. Unfortunately, more hospitals are attempting to acquire Community cancer centers which only drives the cost to society higher. Since 2008 over 700 Community cancer centers have been acquired by Hospitals.