Relative importance of individual insurance status and hospital payer mix on survival for women with cervical cancer

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess the relative contributions of individual insurance status and hospital payer mix (safety net status) to quality of care and survival for patients with cervical cancer. MethodsWe used the National Cancer Database to identify patients with cervical cancer diagnosed from 2004 to 2017. Patients were classified by insurance (uninsured/Medicaid/private/Medicare/other) and hospitals were grouped into quartiles based on the proportion of uninsured/Medicaid patients (payer mix) (top quartile defined as safety-net hospital (SNHs) and lowest as Q1 hospitals). Quality-of-care was assessed by adherence to evidence-based metrics. Individual contributions of insurance status and payer mix to survival was assessed with a proportional hazards Cox model. ResultsA total of 124,339 patients including 11,338 uninsured (9.1%) and 27,281 Medicaid (21.9%) recipients treated at 1156 hospitals were identified. Quality-of-care was not significantly different across hospital quartiles. Adjusting for patients' clinical/demographic characteristics, treatment at a SNH was associated with a 14% higher mortality (HR = 1.14; 95% CL, 1.08–1.20) than at Q1 hospitals. Testing for individual insurance, uninsured patients had 32% increased mortality (HR = 1.32; 95% CI,1.26–1.38) and Medicaid recipients 40% increased (HR = 1.40; 95%CI,1.35–1.44) compared to privately insured patients. Examining both payer mix and insurance, only individual insurance retained a significant impact on mortality. ConclusionsIndividual insurance may be a more important predictor of survival than site-of-care and hospital payer mix for women with cervical cancer. There is substantial variation in outcomes within hospitals based on individual insurance, regardless of hospital payer mix.