Determinants of spending for metastatic breast, lung, and colorectal cancer in SEER-Medicare.

Abstract

6621 Background: A substantial proportion of cancer spending is directed towards patients with metastatic disease. Past efforts to characterize spending for metastatic cancer have been limited, because they have not included patients with recurrent disease or analyzed spending across the entire episode of care. Spending for stage IV and recurrent metastatic cancer patients may differ. Methods: Using SEER-Medicare data from 2008-13, we identified breast (BC), colorectal (CRC), and lung (LC) cancer patients who were continuously enrolled in parts A, B and D, and had either stage IV or recurrent disease (i.e., return of cancer after resection of stage I-III disease). Mean total Medicare spending/patient per month and per year (2012$US) were estimated from 12 months prior to 12 months after diagnosis, and described for relevant patient sub-groups. Results: In a cohort of 27,847 patients, total spending for stage IV vs. recurrent cancer was 61-73% lower in the year before diagnosis ($11,339 vs. $28,796 for BC; $13,359 and $49,804 for CRC; $15,118 and $49,555 for LC), and 28-88% higher in the year after diagnosis ($68,787 and $42,091 for BC; $111,304 and $58,657 for CRC; $92,181 and $72,354 for LC). When considering the 2 year-period spanning the diagnosis, spending was similar (≤14%) between groups. The primary drivers of spending differences between patients with stage IV and recurrent disease were cancer type and time from diagnosis (Table). Younger age, higher comorbidity, and SEER region were also drivers of higher spending, especially after diagnosis. Conclusions: Spending patterns differ for patients with stage IV vs. recurrent cancer, suggesting different patterns of care that warrant further investigation. Spending differences after diagnosis were driven largely by part B spending, which was due in part to differential chemotherapy use. [Table: see text]