Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at Cancer Insurers Roundtable

The Roosevelt Room

Certain words have the power to make time stop. Malignant. Aggressive. Terminal. Cancer.

Like a spell, they still the air around us. Frozen in place, we feel the world we knew slipping away.

And when the hands of the clock begin to move once again, we are not the person we once were, and it can feel like we’re all alone.

But with a patient navigator by your side, you’re never alone.

Navigators guide patients and their families through the complex and daunting world of cancer. They help patients with everything from scheduling appointments to keeping track of medications to coordinating things like transportation and child care.

When you have someone who knows the system by your side every step of the way, it changes everything.

But for too long, these services weren’t available to many Americans. That’s because the proper billing codes didn’t exist. And this meant that insurers couldn’t pay for patient navigation services, so most medical practices couldn’t provide them.

Through the Biden Cancer Moonshot, Joe found a solution.

His Administration put in place new billing codes, ones that Medicare and other health insurers can use to pay for patient navigation services.

But for those codes to help the most people, insurance companies need to use them. That’s where you come in.

You’ve stepped forward – using these codes so that more of your members can benefit from the support that patient navigators provide.

That choice will change lives – and save them.

It’s not just the right thing to do for patients, it’s also the right thing for your businesses.

Patients with navigators miss fewer appointments, are more likely to complete their treatment, and are less likely to need to go to the emergency room or be hospitalized.

So, on behalf of the President and me, thank you.

The companies that have stepped forward serve 150 million Americans – nearly half the country. And we know that those aren’t just numbers.

They’re the father who will be able to enroll in a cutting-edge clinical trial because his navigator helped him find it.

The student whose pain no longer keeps her from class, because her navigator is helping her control the side effects of her treatment.

The grandmother who can keep traveling and seeing her grandkids because a navigator helps her follow her treatment plan.

Yes, the word cancer has the power to strike fear into our hearts. But, as we’ve seen today, we have power too.

Together, through the Biden Cancer Moonshot, we’re building a world where our power is greater than ever before, where patients and their families have a trusted navigator by their side, where no person has to face cancer alone. And I can tell you from personal experience that it makes all the difference.

Thank you.

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