AARST_Radon_Reporter_July_2023

THE RADON REPORTER | 19 MEDICAL Medical and Prescription Costs – All Cancers The Cancer Trends Progress Report from the National Cancer Institute is the source of information for medical and prescription costs. The following is excepted from the 2022 report: The national cancer-attributed medical care costs in the United States are substantial and projected to increase due to population changes alone, according to the Medical Care Costs Associated with Cancer Survivorship in the United States( link is external) article, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (1) 1 . National costs for cancer care were estimated to be $190.2 billion in 2015. Assuming constant future costs, we project costs to be $208.9 billion in 2020 (2020 U.S. dollars), an increase of 10 percent that is only due to the aging and growth of the U.S. population. 2 These cost estimates include cancer-attributable costs for medical services and oral prescription drugs. National medical services costs were largest for those diagnosed with female breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. National oral prescription drug costs were highest for those diagnosed with female breast, leukemia, lung, and prostate cancers. The differences in national costs reflect prevalence of the disease, treatment patterns, and costs for different types of care for the different cancer sites. If cancer diagnosis and treatment is divided into phases of care: initial (first year after diagnosis), end-of- life (year before cancer death) and continuing (the time in between), per-patient annualized average costs were highest in the last year of life, followed by the initial and continuing phases. [Figure 1] Per-patient annualized average cancer-attributable costs were estimated, respectively, from 2007- 2013 Medicare claims by subtracting costs between patients with cancer and their matched controls without cancer. Annualized average medical costs were estimated by phases of care: initial (first year after diagnosis), end-of-life (year before cancer death) and continuing (the time in between). Medical services care costs were estimated from Medicare Parts A and B claims and include both Medicare payments and patient responsibilities for all billed medical services, including hospitalizations, outpatient hospital services, physician/supplier services, infusion or injectable drugs, durable medical equipment, hospice care, and home health care. Oral prescription drug costs were estimated from Medicare Part D claims. 3 1 Mariotto AB, Enewold L, Zhao JX, Zeruto CA, Yabroff KR. Medical Care Costs Associated with Cancer Survivorship in the United States. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2020;29(7):1304-12. 2 The estimates in this report come from Mariotto, et al. and are an extension and update of previous estimates. All cost estimates have been adjusted and are reported in 2020 U.S. dollars. 3 https://progressreport.cancer.gov/after/economic_burden FIGURE 1. ATTRIBUTABLE COST OF CANCERS continued on page 20