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Day one of ACCC’s 43rd National Oncology Conference featured a national look at financial advocacy, the Psychosocial Oncology Professionals Symposium, announcement of the President’s Theme from 2026-2027 ACCC President Douglas Flora, MD, LSSBB, FACCC, and recognition of the 2026 ACCC Innovators.
Each year, the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) welcomes cancer care professionals, operations leaders, clinicians, navigators, and other members of the multidisciplinary team to learn from one another and connect across disciplines. This year, the 43rd National Oncology Conference is taking place October 21-23 in Boston, Massachusetts. The presentations, panels, and discussions that take place this week will help to shape future innovations, beginning with day one’s sessions on financial advocacy, psychosocial well-being, and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future of cancer care.
The ACCC Financial Advocacy Network opened the day with a breakfast session on current trends, challenges, and emerging needs in financial advocacy. Participants examined findings from the 2026 Financial Advocacy Network Census, which surveyed multidisciplinary professionals who take on financial responsibilities at cancer programs nationwide.
The current landscape of financial advocacy is characterized by increased resource and capacity needs for both financial advocates and patients. Rising cancer diagnoses in the US are driving up caseloads, and respondents expressed little confidence that their programs can keep pace. Only 17% said that staffing at their institution is meeting growing patient demand.
“This isn’t one person’s responsibility...This is a multidisciplinary team need,” said Teresa van Oort, MHA, MSSW, LCSW-S, FAOSW, OSW-C, Program Manager at ACCC and presenter.
Administrative toxicity adds to the pressure. Financial advocates manage copay assistance applications, prior authorizations, and grant applications on patients’ behalf. Combined with growing caseloads, limited resources, and the emotional weight of the work, this burden takes a toll: Nine out of ten census respondents reported experiencing burnout.
“We’re not only working with someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer, which can be a trauma, but they are in a vulnerable place sharing financial information and we are carrying that story with us,” said Aimee Hoch, MSW, LSW, OSW-C, FACCC, Program Manager at ACCC, who brings more than 20 years of experience in oncology social work.
Looking ahead, financial advocates expect changes to Medicaid and Medicare coverage to be a key navigational challenge, along with growing patient confusion about cost-sharing and eligibility. Still, there is reason for optimism. Many cancer programs anticipate growing their financial advocacy staff in the next few years. As a more immediate solution, presenters pointed to AI tools as a practical way to streamline administrative workflows.
Returning for its second year, the Psychosocial Oncology Professionals Symposium (POPS), presented by ACCC and the Cancer Support Community, offered a full day of sessions focused on practical strategies, with clear pathways to implementation, that improve patient-centered care.
Hoch and Greg Gierer, MPP, Founder and Managing Principal of Hilltop Health Policy Advisors, opened the symposium with a look at how recent legislation is affecting access to oncology care.
With midterm elections quickly approaching, Gierer noted that national legislative priorities could shift depending on the results. Meanwhile, recent policy changes are already threatening coverage for patients with cancer and their caregivers.
Patients and families are finding it harder to secure coverage and access treatment, and out-of-pocket costs continue to climb. Gierer identified new Medicaid work requirements as one of the most significant challenges, citing estimates that more than 5 million people could lose eligibility.
Hoch described how these issues surface in practice. “One of the most important things we can do as practitioners is to approach the patient and have proactive conversations... raise these financial topics early and often," she said. "We know circumstances change as patients' lives change, and it is important to build that trust and have that relationship.”
The next session tackled biomarker testing, a critical and rapidly expanding component of quality oncology practice. Christopher McNair, PhD, Chief Research Informatics Officer at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Jefferson Health, opened with an overview of how testing helps clinicians reduce trial and error when selecting therapies. Becky Cammy, PhD, LCSW, Program Director of Psychosocial Care at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Jefferson Health, described the access barriers and psychosocial challenges that can accompany biomarker testing. Some patients view their results with hope and optimism. Others struggle to interpret the data because of health literacy barriers or receive results that do not point to a clear path forward.
The presenters proposed five core pillars for cancer care teams implementing precision medicine: consider patients’ values and preferences throughout the process, provide clear options for care, offer core navigation throughout treatment identification and implementation process, delivertimely results, and provide emotional support.
“We are focused on the biological presentation in precision medicine,” said Cammy. “We also need to think about the psychosocial presentation of care in ways that encompass a patient’s health literacy, values, socioeconomic circumstances, family health history, and lived experiences.”
Whole-patient care means supporting the entire family, including children and teenagers who can be profoundly impacted by a parent’s diagnosis. Kim Fryar, MS, MEd, National Program Director of Wonder & Worries, shared how care teams can engage these young family members and strengthen family coping.
Many parents avoid sharing details about their illness to protect their children, but Fryar explained that this approach can inadvertently do more harm than good. It can weaken bonds with family and friends, and contribute to poor academic performance, delays in emotional growth and development, and even posttraumatic stress disorder.
Fryar offered three practical strategies to reduce these risks. The first is illness education: talking with children openly, honestly, and in an age-appropriate way about cancer and how it is affecting their parent. The second is medical preparation, which helps children understand the treatment their parent is going through. The third is maintaining connection. Because the cancer experience can be emotionally overwhelming and isolating, simple, low-energy family rituals become even more important.
Bridgette Thom, PhD, Assistant Professor at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, framed financial vulnerability as a core component of psychosocial care. Financial toxicity extends well beyond a patient’s bank account. The stress, anxiety, and depression it causes can affect a patient’s ability to cope with the physical effects of their cancer or treatment, and with it, their overall health and well-being. Dr. Thom noted that while research into interventions continues, these efforts often overlook rural populations and rarely account for unique needs shaped by age, culture, and ethnicity.
Dr. Thom and her team believe financial toxicity screening should be universal but acknowledge that starting these conversations can be difficult. Both providers and patients agree that they need to happen more often than they do in practice.
To ease that tension, Dr. Thom’s team developed an accessible screening mechanism that is composed of only two questions. It is designed to get to the heart of patients’ financial concerns without adding administrative burden for patients or providers.
Dr. Thom also stressed the value of a multidisciplinary approach to assessing financial distress. “Don’t try to tackle the problem alone," she said. Every member of the care team has a role in building trust and connecting patients with available resources.
Clinical social workers Maddie Liakos, LICSW, MSW, and Kiersten Anderson, MSW, LICSW, OSW-C, of Massachusetts General Hospital, took a closer look at the psychosocial impact of cervical cancer and shared evidence-based strategies to improve quality of life for these patients.
Gynecologic cancers present unique barriers. Human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer, carries a social stigma that can keep patients from seeking care. The invasive nature of treatment, particularly brachytherapy, can also add layers of trauma.
“Trauma-informed care shouldn’t be optional. In fact, it should be foundational," said Anderson.
For clinicians, trauma-informed care can range from asking for consent before and after exams to paying close attention to verbal and nonverbal cues. On a broader scale, multidisciplinary team members can help destigmatize HPV through the language and approaches they use with patients.
The final POPS session explored the benefits and ethical considerations of sharing patient stories. Kelly Hendershot, LGSW, LMSW, Vice President of Network and Healthcare Partnerships at Cancer Support Community, emphasized that patients who share their stories with cancer care professionals are entrusting them with something valuable.
When community and advocacy organizations share patient stories, Hendershot recommends following an ethical framework that respects patient autonomy. That means always obtaining consent, protecting confidentiality when needed, using destigmatizing and inclusive language, and amplifying diverse experiences.
Leora Lowenthal, LICSW, OSW-C, MPA, Senior Clinical Social Worker at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, pointed out that chart documentation is also a way of telling a patient's story, and one that patients may now read themselves. Under the 21st Century Cures Act, most medical documentation must be made available to patients. This gives patients more insight into how their story is told, but it can also erode trust between the patient and provider if documentation is not written with care.
"Patients are the owners of their stories, and documentation is part of their story," said Lowenthal.
Following the symposium, the evening general session opened with a heartfelt farewell from Una Hopkins, DNP, MSN, FNP-BC, NE-BC, RN, FACCC, 2025-2026 ACCC President and Director of Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice at Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center. She celebrated the work of the Board, staff, and members in a year of big changes and transitions in oncology. Dr. Hopkins then welcomed her successor, Douglas Flora, MD, LSSBB, FACCC, 2026-2027 ACCC President and Executive Medical Director of Oncology Services at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, who announced his President’s Theme: Humanizing Cancer Care Through AI.
Dr. Flora described the current state of cancer care in the US: promising new therapies alongside persistent gaps in access, unmet survivorship and psychosocial needs, rising clinician burnout, and heavy administrative burdens. He presented AI as a way to reduce those burdens and return clinicians to where they are most needed: at the bedside with patients.
Acknowledging concerns about the rapid growth of the technology, Dr. Flora said, "I would rather be AI fluent and curious and leading these discussions with ACCC. I want to use digital tools to bring humanity back to our care.”
Central to his theme, and to his tenure as ACCC President, is the belief that AI can help make high-quality cancer more equitable nationwide, no matter where patients live. “I think we can drive smarter cancer care," he said.
The evening closed with the 2026 ACCC Innovator Awards ceremony, as representatives from six cancer programs took the stage to be recognized for putting that vision of more accessible, equitable care into practice. Now in their 16th year, the ACCC Innovator Awards honor visionary ideas from ACCC Cancer Program Members that advance access, quality, and value in cancer care delivery. The 2026 ACCC Innovators are:
Each program will share how its model works, and how other cancer programs can adopt it, during dedicated sessions on Day 2 of the NOC.
Don’t miss the next blog covering the 43rd National Oncology Conference, which will feature presentations from the 2026 ACCC Innovators on how other cancer programs can adopt their models, along with panel discussions on key operational challenges oncology professionals face every day.
On Day 2 of the 2026 NCCN Fall Policy Summit, speakers and panelists discussed the greatest operational hurdles preventing personalized cancer screening, offered proven best practices in five real-world case studies, and explored policy solutions to modernize screening systems.
