News & Updates

Sharon Gentry, MSN, RN, HON-ONN-CG, AOCN, recently traveled to Philadelphia to represent AONN+ at the Access USA Conference, specifically for Patient Assistance & Access Programs. Here, she took part in the highly popular panel, “The Medicare Patient Experience: Affordability, Access, and the State of Healthcare Today,” which focused on financial burdens that patients with chronic illnesses face and why the work to improve access is far from finished. 

April 3, 2025 – The undersigned cancer organizations, which represent people with cancer; cancer health care professionals; researchers; and caregivers, families and friends of those with cancer, issued the following statement in response to the mass reductions in force at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the reorganization of the department.

In recent years, patients with chronic conditions, including cancer, have faced harmful "copay diversion programs" such as copay accumulators and maximizers. These programs prevent copay assistance payments from counting toward a patient's annual deductible and out-of-pocket maximums. Once the assistance runs out, patients are left with hundreds or thousands of out-of-pocket costs, even though they should have already reached their yearly maximum.

In light of the recent Executive Order regarding federally backed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, certain materials related to clinical trial diversity have been removed from the FDA website.

AONN+ understands the concern that this creates and assures you that we remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting our members, their patients, and the navigation community through these challenging times.

We encourage all navigators to lean into your AONN+ community and resources, including the Oncology Navigation Standards of Professional Practice as outlined in our recent statement.

Through a generous program, Airbnb and its hosts offer free lodging to patients needing medical stays in areas away from home.

A new initiative, with buy-in from the main oncology patient navigation groups and the American Cancer Society, points the way to standardization and promises to transform the field. See what this will mean for you.

The Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+), the only national organization for navigation professionals, is pleased to announce that Co-Founder and Program Director Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS, ONN-CG, has been named a 2018 WebMD Health Hero for her work as a caregiver in the fight against cancer.

Woman’s Hospital GYN/Oncology Nurse Navigator Ashley Marks, RN, BSN, OCN, CHPN, CBCN talks about winning the ONE Award and some of her experiences as an oncology nurse for 26 years in this interview.

The Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) is having quite an eventful year, and we are excited to share the goals we have met and our achievements thus far.