Costs for radiation therapy among Medicare patients can vary greatly, often due to factors unrelated to the patient or his or her cancer, according to a study published online August 11 in the Journal of Oncology Practice.
Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine found that the year of diagnosis, location of treatment, clinic type, and individual radiation provider accounted for 44% to 61% of the variation in cost for patients with breast, lung, and prostate cancer. Factors associated with the patient or the tumor accounted for less than 3% of the variation in cost.
The results suggest there is inefficiency within the current Medicare reimbursement framework for radiation therapy, Dr. James Murphy said in a statement.
The total radiation therapy cost for the 55,288 patients included in the study was more than $831 million, the researchers estimated. They did acknowledge that the study did not consider the relationship between the cost of radiotherapy and quality of care.
