Insurance status and hepatocellular carcinoma: A NCDB analysis.

Abstract

240 Background: Typically occurring in patients with chronic liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common liver cancer. Our goal was to compare survival of patients with differing insurance types diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma identified in the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Methods: We identified 113,159 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in the NCDB diagnosed between 2004-2014. Patients included were categorized as having no insurance, private insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare were included. Between-insurance survival differences were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and associated log-rank tests; Tukey-Kramer adjusted p < .05 indicated statistical significance. Results: Statistically significant survival differences were indicated between all insurance groups (all adjusted p < 0.05), such that privately insured patients had the highest median survival. The discrepancy in survival between uninsured and privately insured patients was the largest (4.6 months vs. 16.9 months, respectively). Medicaid patients on average had a survival of 9.8 months, while Medicare patients had a median survival of 10.0 months. 19% of uninsured patients presented with stage I hepatocellular carcinoma, whereas 30.3% of privately insured patients presented with stage I hepatocellular carcinoma. More uninsured patients did not have surgery of the primary site compared to privately insured patients (87.7% vs. 70.0%, respectively). Likewise, more privately insured patients had a transplant compared to those with Medicaid, Medicare, or those who were uninsured (13.0% vs. 5.7% vs. 5.0% vs. 1.6%, respectively). Conclusions: Our study shows the discrepancies in survival between patients with differing insurance statuses. Of all insurances, those privately insured had the largest median survival. Median survival and percentage surviving. [Table: see text]