One-Year Costs of Increased Screening and Treatment for Breast Cancer in the Air Force Medical Service

Abstract

The Air Force Medical Service is attempting to increase the screening mammography rate among women enrolled to U.S. Air Force military treatment facilities from 72% to 86% (a 20% relative increase). A study was performed to estimate the costs (from testing and first-year treatment) of this targeted increase. We estimated additional 1-year costs using two approaches referred to as the Primary Care Optimization (PCO) approach and the TRICARE Prime benefit (TPB) approach. Under the PCO approach, women ages > or = 50 years are screened every 2 years, whereas under the TPB approach, women are screened every 2 years from ages 40 to 49 years and annually beginning at age 50 years. As of December 31, 2000, 68,360 women ages 40 to 49 years and 70,563 women ages 50 to 69 years were enrolled to U.S. Air Force military treatment facilities. Additional 1-year costs (and additional cases detected by screening) were estimated at dollars 447,096 for the PCO approach (58 additional cases) and dollars 1,340,140 for the TPB approach (72 additional cases). Compared with the PCO approach, under the TPB approach, the 1-year costs of increased screening and treatment for breast cancer at U.S. Air Force military treatment facilities would be three times higher, but the number of additional cases detected by screening would be only 24% higher.