Dr. Xu Ji Highlights the Importance of Medicaid Coverage for Pediatric Lymphoma Care

Blood Cancers Today spoke with Xu Ji, PhD, MSPH, of Emory University School of Medicine, an expert on health care system access and policy issues faced by pediatric patients with cancer and their families.

As explained by Dr. Ji, Medicaid coverage is extremely important for timely diagnosis of lymphoma and access to care. In this interview she describes her database study, published in Blood Advances, which assessed what proportion of pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients with lymphoma possessed Medicaid coverage before receiving the diagnosis versus the proportion  enrolled only at the time of diagnosis.

Dr. Ji found that only three of eight patients with lymphoma had Medicaid coverage in the 12 months before receiving the diagnosis. Other patterns she identified were that patients who were only enrolled at or shortly after diagnosis were more likely to present with stage IV disease and that adolescent and young adult patients were less likely to be enrolled in Medicaid than pediatric patients.

“Our findings really highlight the importance of multilevel policies or interventions and to improve the continuity of Medicaid coverage for low-income patients with cancer,” Dr. Ji remarked.