Objective: To characterize spending patterns for Medicare patients with incident breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer.
Data sources/study setting/study design: 2007-2012 data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program linked with Medicare fee-for-service claims.
Data collection/extraction methods: We calculate per-patient monthly and yearly mean and median expenditures, by cancer type, stage at diagnosis, and spending category, over the years of diagnosis and death.
Principal findings: Over the year of diagnosis, mean spending was $35,849, $26,295, $55,597, and $63,063 for breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer, respectively. Over the year of death, spending was similar across different cancer types and stage at diagnosis.
Conclusions: Characterization of Medicare spending according to clinically meaningful categories may assist development of oncology alternative payment models and cost-effectiveness models.
Keywords: Medicare; Oncology; alternative payment model.
© Health Research and Educational Trust.