PCN173 HEALTHCARE COSTS OF BREAST CANCER BY MAMMOGRAPHY SCREENING BEHAVIOR AMONG COMMERCIALLY INSURED WOMEN AGED 40-64

Abstract

Mammography screening saves lives, but the appropriate screening interval for younger women remains controversial. Little is known about the financial burden borne by health plan payers and women with breast cancer. The objective of this study was to estimate the per patient healthcare costs in the initial treatment phase of incident breast cancer associated with different mammography screening intervals, from a large U.S. commercial insurance claims database. From the perspective of insurers and patients, our study provides dollar estimates of healthcare costs from patients with different screening behavior (annual, biennial and none) identified 33 months before cancer diagnosis based on the MarketScan commercial claims database in the years 1999-2014. A generalized linear model was used to adjust for potential confounders. The first-year healthcare costs from insurance payer’s perspective for no screening, annual screening and biennial screening were $168,786, $165,814, and $157,950, respectively. And the out-of-pocket costs paid by patients were $7,101, $6,687, and $6,178. For health plan payers, there are cost savings associated with regular and more frequent screening. For patients, regular screening reduces out-of-pocket costs but the difference under different screening intervals is minimal. While regular mammography screening substantially reduces healthcare costs, the decision of annual versus biennial screening should be based on individual weighing of the benefits and harms.