Xuehua Ke

Out-of-pocket health care expenditure burden for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer

BACKGROUND: There is increasing concern regarding the financial burden of care on cancer patients and their families. Medicare beneficiaries often have extensive comorbidities and limited financial resources, and may face substantial cost sharing even with supplemental coverage. In the current study, the authors examined out‐of‐pocket (OOP) spending and burden relative to income for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer.

Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents are not associated with increased risk of thrombosis in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

Background There are limited reports of thrombosis among myelodysplastic syndrome patients exposed to erythropoiesis stimulating agents. It is not clear whether erythropoiesis stimulating agents are associated with an increased risk of thrombosis in myelodysplastic syndromes, as they are among patients with solid tumors. Design and Methods The association between use of erythropoiesis stimulating agent and transient thrombosis risk in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes was assessed in a case-crossover study nested within a cohort of incident myelodysplastic syndrome patients. Using the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Medicare-linked database, cases with an incident diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis were identified. Using conditional logistical regression, the odds of exposure to erythropoiesis stimulating agents in the 12 weeks prior to the incident deep vein thrombosis (hazard period) was compared to the exposure odds in a prior 12-week comparison period. Results Within the cohort of eligibles with myelodysplastic syndromes (n=5,673) there were 212 incident cases of deep vein thrombosis events. Mean age was 76.2 (standard deviation=±8.6) years. Use of erythropoiesis stimulating agents was not associated with deep vein thrombosis in the crude nor the adjusted models (OR=1.21, 95% CI: 0.60, 2.43). Central venous catheter placement (OR=6.47, 95% CI: 2.37, 17.62) and red blood cell transfusion (OR=4.60, 95% CI: 2.29, 9.23) were associated with deep vein thrombosis. Conclusions Despite the link between use of erythropoiesis stimulating agents and thrombosis among patients with solid tumors, this study provides evidence that their safety profile may be different among patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.

Patterns of erythropoiesis-stimulating agent use among Medicare beneficiaries with myelodysplastic syndromes and consistency with clinical guidelines

Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESA) are used commonly to reduce symptomatic anemia in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). We assessed population-based patterns of ESA use relative to treatment guidelines using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries, with linked Medicare claims providing detailed treatment data from 2001 through 2005. The study found widespread use (62%) of ESA in Medicare beneficiaries with MDS. Similar ESA use rates regardless of risk status, low frequency (45%) of serum erythropoietin determination prior to ESA initiation, and high prevalence (60.4%) of short-duration ESA episodes suggest clinically important discrepancies between actual practice and guideline-recommended therapy.

Validation of disability status, a claims-based measure of functional status for cancer treatment and outcomes studies.

Background:In prior research, we developed a claims-based prediction model for poor patient disability status (DS), a proxy measure for performance status, commonly used by oncologists to summarize patient functional status and assess ability of a patient to tolerate aggressive treatment. In this study, we implemented and validated the DS measure in 4 cohorts of cancer patients: early and advanced non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), stage IV estrogen receptor-negative (ER−) breast cancer, and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Data and Methods:SEER-Medicare data (1999–2007) for the 4 cohorts of cancer patients. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression tested the association of the DS measure with designated cancer-directed treatments: early NSCLC (surgery), advanced NSCLC (chemotherapy), stage IV ER− breast cancer (chemotherapy), and MDS (erythropoiesis-stimulating agents). Treatment model fit was compared across model iterations. Results:In both unadjusted and adjusted results, predicted poor DS was strongly associated with a lower likelihood of cancer treatment receipt in all 4 cohorts [early NSCLC (N=20,280), advanced NSCLC (N=31,341), stage IV ER− breast cancer (N=1519), and MDS (N=6058)] independent of other patient, contextual, and disease characteristics, as well as the Charlson Comorbidity Index. Inclusion of the DS measure into models already controlling for other variables did not significantly improve model fit across the cohorts. Conclusions:The DS measure is a significant independent predictor of cancer-directed treatment. Small changes in model fit associated with both DS and the Charlson Comorbidity Index suggest that unobserved factors continue to play a role in determining cancer treatments.

Patient and physician characteristics associated with erythropoiesis-stimulating agent use in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

Patient and physician characteristics associated with use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in myelodysplastic syndrome patients have not yet been described. Myelodysplastic syndrome patients diagnosed from 2001 to 2005 were identified from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare database. Multivariate regressions examined the association between patient and physician characteristics and the probability of receiving any erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, and of receiving therapeutic-length (≥8 week) treatment episodes. Among the 6,588 myelodysplastic syndrome patients studied, 65% received erythropoiesis-stimulating agents. Use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents was lower for blacks compared to whites (OR 0.78; 95% CI:0.61–0.99), single persons compared to married (OR 0.77; 95% CI:0.62–0.97), Medicaid recipients (OR 0.66; 95% CI:0.55–0.79), and those living in census tracts with lower educational attainment. Patients who did not consult a hematology-oncology specialist were less likely to receive erythropoiesis-stimulating agents. Specialist access, financial resources and mobility are key determinants of receipt of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents among myelodysplastic syndrome patients.

The Effect of Supplemental Medical and Prescription Drug Coverage on Health Care Spending for Medicare Beneficiaries with Cancer

OBJECTIVES To examine whether patients with newly diagnosed cancer respond differently to supplemental coverage than the general Medicare population. METHODS A cohort of newly diagnosed cancer patients (n = 1,799) from the 1997-2007 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and a noncancer cohort (n = 9,726) were identified and matched by panel year. Two-year total medical care spending was estimated by using generalized linear models with gamma distribution and log link-including endogeneity-corrected models. Interactions between cancer and type of insurance allowed testing for differential effects of a cancer diagnosis. RESULTS The cancer cohort spent an adjusted

43 The broad use of erythropoietic stimulating agents (ESA) for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) in the U.S. is not consistent with guidelines

15,605 more over 2 years than did the noncancer comparison group. Relative to those without supplemental coverage, beneficiaries with employer-sponsored insurance, other private with prescription drug coverage, and public coverage had significantly higher total spending (

Validation of a claims-based predicted performance status measure in SEER-Medicare.

3,510,

A Novel Approach to Improve Health Status Measurement in Observational Claims-based Studies of Cancer Treatment and Outcomes

2,823, and

Treatment and outcomes for chronic myelomonocytic leukemia compared to myelodysplastic syndromes in older adults

4,065, respectively, for main models). For beneficiaries with cancer, supplemental insurance effects were similar in magnitude yet negative, suggesting little net effect of supplemental insurance for cancer patients. The endogeneity-corrected models produced implausibly large main effects of supplemental insurance, but the Cancer × Insurance interactions were similar in both models. CONCLUSIONS Medicare beneficiaries with cancer are less responsive to the presence and type of supplemental insurance than are beneficiaries without cancer. Proposed restrictions on the availability of supplemental insurance intended to reduce Medicare spending would be unlikely to limit expenditures by beneficiaries with cancer, but would shift the financial burden to those beneficiaries. Policymakers should consider welfare effects associated with coverage restrictions.