Cost of colon cancer care: Results of nationwide inpatient sample (NIS) data.

Abstract

692 Background: Cost of cancer care including colon cancer continues to rise. Most of the recent advances in colon cancer inlcude biologics and targeted agents which are adminstered in an oupatient setting and more commonly thought to be responsible for increasing economic burden. Cost of care for cancer patients in an inpatient setting however continues to be a significant factor that needs to be identified better to help adopt cost effective quality improvement in future. Methods: We used NIS to extract data for patients hospitalized with primary diagnosis of colon cancer using clinical classification software code 14, and corresponding ICD9 codes for the years 2003-2013. ICD codes for colorectal and rectal cancer were eliminated. NIS is a nationally representative survey of hospitalizations conducted by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. It represents 20% of all hospital data in US. Trend of rate of hospitalization, mean length of stay (LOS), mean cost of hospitalization and mean cost of hospitalization based on owner type- government, private not for profit (PNFP) and private for profit (PFP) was performed. Results: From the year 2003 to 2013 rate of hospitalizations for colon cancer decreased from 37.4 to 28.1 per 100,000 hospital admissions. Mean LOS declined from 9.06 to 7.76 between 2003-2013. In the same time period the mean cost of hospital stay increased from $39,430 to $73,219. The mean cost of hospitalization based on owner type in 2003 was government $33,507; PNFP $33,735 and PFP was $55,553 and in 2013 the mean costs were $63,194; $68,555 and $107,428 respectively. Conclusions: In the decade of 2003-2013 the rate of hospitalization decreased by approximately 25%, LOS decreased by 14% but the mean cost of hospitalization continued to increase throughout the decade with a mean increase of approximately 85% in hospital costs. The increase was observed across the spectrum of all owner types with the maximum increase of 104% in PNFP followed by PFP owner type at 93%, national inflation rate was 26% during this time. Progress made in decreasing LOS has not directly translated into reducing hospital costs and further studies focusing on factors in addition to cost of biologic agents that contribute to cancer care costs should be considered.