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according to a recent report in JAMA Network Open.
“While acceptable to pay higher prices for care that is expected to be of higher quality, we found no differences in short-term postsurgical outcomes,” said authors led by Samuel Takvorian, MD, a medical oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
The team looked at what insurance companies paid for incident breast, colon, and lung cancer surgeries, which together account for most cancer surgeries, among 66,878 patients treated from 2011 to 2014 at almost 3,000 U.S. hospitals.
Three-quarters had surgery at a community hospital, and 8.3% were treated at one of the nation’s 71 NCI centers, which are recognized by the NCI as meeting rigorous standards in cancer care. The remaining patients were treated at non-NCI academic hospitals.
The mean surgery-specific insurer prices paid at NCI centers was $18,526 versus $14,772 at community hospitals, a difference of $3,755 (P < .001) that was driven primarily by higher facility payments at NCI centers, a mean of $17,704 versus $14,120 at community hospitals.
Mean 90-day postdischarge payments were also $5,744 higher at NCI centers, $47,035 versus $41,291 at community hospitals (P = .006).
The team used postsurgical acute care utilization as a marker of quality but found no differences between the two settings. Mean length of stay was 5.1 days and the probability of ED utilization just over 13% in both, and both had a 90-day readmission rate of just over 10%.
Who should be treated at an NCI center?
The data didn’t allow for direct comparison of surgical quality, such as margin status, number of lymph nodes assessed, or postoperative complications, but the postsurgery utilization outcomes “suggest that quality may have been similar,” said Nancy Keating, MD, a health care policy and medicine professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston, in an invited commentary.
The price differences are probably because NCI centers, with their comprehensive offerings, market share, and prestige, can negotiate higher reimbursement rates from insurers, the researchers said.
There is also evidence of better outcomes at NCI centers, particularly for more advanced and complex cases. However, “this study focused on common cancer surgical procedures ... revealing that there is a premium associated with receipt of surgical cancer care at NCI centers.” Further research “is necessary to judge whether and under what circumstances the premium price of NCI centers is justified,” the investigators said.
Dr. Keating noted that “it is likely that some patients benefit from the highly specialized care available at NCI-designated cancer centers ... but it is also likely that many other patients will do equally well regardless of where they receive their care.”
Amid ever-increasing cancer care costs and the need to strategically allocate financial resources, more research is needed to “identify subgroups of patients for whom highly specialized care is particularly necessary to achieve better outcomes. Such data could also be used by payers considering tiered networks and by physician organizations participating in risk contracts for decisions about where to refer patients with cancer for treatment,” she said.
Rectifying a ‘misalignment’
The researchers also said the findings reveal competing incentives, with commercial payers wanting to steer patients away from high-cost hospitals but health systems hoping to maximize surgical volume at lucrative referral centers.
“Value-based or bundled payment reimbursement for surgical episodes, particularly when paired with mandatory reporting on surgical outcomes, could help to rectify this misalignment,” they said.
Out-of-pocket spending wasn’t analyzed in the study, so it’s unknown how the higher prices at NCI centers hit patients in the pocketbook.
Meanwhile, non-NCI academic hospitals also had higher insurer prices paid than community hospitals, but the differences were not statistically significant, nor were differences in the study’s utilization outcomes.
Over half the patients had breast cancer, about one-third had colon cancer, and the rest had lung tumors. Patients treated at NCI centers tended to be younger than those treated at community hospitals and more likely to be women, but comorbidity scores were similar between the groups.
NCI centers, compared with community hospitals, were larger with higher surgical volumes and in more populated areas. They also had higher rates of laparoscopic partial colectomies and pneumonectomies.
Data came from the Health Care Cost Institute’s national commercial claims data set, which includes claims from three of the country’s five largest commercial insurers: Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare.
The work was funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Takvorian and Dr. Keating didn’t have any disclosures. One of Dr. Takvorian’s coauthors reported grants and/or personal fees from several sources, including Pfizer, UnitedHealthcare, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.
according to a recent report in JAMA Network Open.
“While acceptable to pay higher prices for care that is expected to be of higher quality, we found no differences in short-term postsurgical outcomes,” said authors led by Samuel Takvorian, MD, a medical oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
The team looked at what insurance companies paid for incident breast, colon, and lung cancer surgeries, which together account for most cancer surgeries, among 66,878 patients treated from 2011 to 2014 at almost 3,000 U.S. hospitals.
Three-quarters had surgery at a community hospital, and 8.3% were treated at one of the nation’s 71 NCI centers, which are recognized by the NCI as meeting rigorous standards in cancer care. The remaining patients were treated at non-NCI academic hospitals.
The mean surgery-specific insurer prices paid at NCI centers was $18,526 versus $14,772 at community hospitals, a difference of $3,755 (P < .001) that was driven primarily by higher facility payments at NCI centers, a mean of $17,704 versus $14,120 at community hospitals.
Mean 90-day postdischarge payments were also $5,744 higher at NCI centers, $47,035 versus $41,291 at community hospitals (P = .006).
The team used postsurgical acute care utilization as a marker of quality but found no differences between the two settings. Mean length of stay was 5.1 days and the probability of ED utilization just over 13% in both, and both had a 90-day readmission rate of just over 10%.
Who should be treated at an NCI center?
The data didn’t allow for direct comparison of surgical quality, such as margin status, number of lymph nodes assessed, or postoperative complications, but the postsurgery utilization outcomes “suggest that quality may have been similar,” said Nancy Keating, MD, a health care policy and medicine professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston, in an invited commentary.
The price differences are probably because NCI centers, with their comprehensive offerings, market share, and prestige, can negotiate higher reimbursement rates from insurers, the researchers said.
There is also evidence of better outcomes at NCI centers, particularly for more advanced and complex cases. However, “this study focused on common cancer surgical procedures ... revealing that there is a premium associated with receipt of surgical cancer care at NCI centers.” Further research “is necessary to judge whether and under what circumstances the premium price of NCI centers is justified,” the investigators said.
Dr. Keating noted that “it is likely that some patients benefit from the highly specialized care available at NCI-designated cancer centers ... but it is also likely that many other patients will do equally well regardless of where they receive their care.”
Amid ever-increasing cancer care costs and the need to strategically allocate financial resources, more research is needed to “identify subgroups of patients for whom highly specialized care is particularly necessary to achieve better outcomes. Such data could also be used by payers considering tiered networks and by physician organizations participating in risk contracts for decisions about where to refer patients with cancer for treatment,” she said.
Rectifying a ‘misalignment’
The researchers also said the findings reveal competing incentives, with commercial payers wanting to steer patients away from high-cost hospitals but health systems hoping to maximize surgical volume at lucrative referral centers.
“Value-based or bundled payment reimbursement for surgical episodes, particularly when paired with mandatory reporting on surgical outcomes, could help to rectify this misalignment,” they said.
Out-of-pocket spending wasn’t analyzed in the study, so it’s unknown how the higher prices at NCI centers hit patients in the pocketbook.
Meanwhile, non-NCI academic hospitals also had higher insurer prices paid than community hospitals, but the differences were not statistically significant, nor were differences in the study’s utilization outcomes.
Over half the patients had breast cancer, about one-third had colon cancer, and the rest had lung tumors. Patients treated at NCI centers tended to be younger than those treated at community hospitals and more likely to be women, but comorbidity scores were similar between the groups.
NCI centers, compared with community hospitals, were larger with higher surgical volumes and in more populated areas. They also had higher rates of laparoscopic partial colectomies and pneumonectomies.
Data came from the Health Care Cost Institute’s national commercial claims data set, which includes claims from three of the country’s five largest commercial insurers: Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare.
The work was funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Takvorian and Dr. Keating didn’t have any disclosures. One of Dr. Takvorian’s coauthors reported grants and/or personal fees from several sources, including Pfizer, UnitedHealthcare, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.
according to a recent report in JAMA Network Open.
“While acceptable to pay higher prices for care that is expected to be of higher quality, we found no differences in short-term postsurgical outcomes,” said authors led by Samuel Takvorian, MD, a medical oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
The team looked at what insurance companies paid for incident breast, colon, and lung cancer surgeries, which together account for most cancer surgeries, among 66,878 patients treated from 2011 to 2014 at almost 3,000 U.S. hospitals.
Three-quarters had surgery at a community hospital, and 8.3% were treated at one of the nation’s 71 NCI centers, which are recognized by the NCI as meeting rigorous standards in cancer care. The remaining patients were treated at non-NCI academic hospitals.
The mean surgery-specific insurer prices paid at NCI centers was $18,526 versus $14,772 at community hospitals, a difference of $3,755 (P < .001) that was driven primarily by higher facility payments at NCI centers, a mean of $17,704 versus $14,120 at community hospitals.
Mean 90-day postdischarge payments were also $5,744 higher at NCI centers, $47,035 versus $41,291 at community hospitals (P = .006).
The team used postsurgical acute care utilization as a marker of quality but found no differences between the two settings. Mean length of stay was 5.1 days and the probability of ED utilization just over 13% in both, and both had a 90-day readmission rate of just over 10%.
Who should be treated at an NCI center?
The data didn’t allow for direct comparison of surgical quality, such as margin status, number of lymph nodes assessed, or postoperative complications, but the postsurgery utilization outcomes “suggest that quality may have been similar,” said Nancy Keating, MD, a health care policy and medicine professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston, in an invited commentary.
The price differences are probably because NCI centers, with their comprehensive offerings, market share, and prestige, can negotiate higher reimbursement rates from insurers, the researchers said.
There is also evidence of better outcomes at NCI centers, particularly for more advanced and complex cases. However, “this study focused on common cancer surgical procedures ... revealing that there is a premium associated with receipt of surgical cancer care at NCI centers.” Further research “is necessary to judge whether and under what circumstances the premium price of NCI centers is justified,” the investigators said.
Dr. Keating noted that “it is likely that some patients benefit from the highly specialized care available at NCI-designated cancer centers ... but it is also likely that many other patients will do equally well regardless of where they receive their care.”
Amid ever-increasing cancer care costs and the need to strategically allocate financial resources, more research is needed to “identify subgroups of patients for whom highly specialized care is particularly necessary to achieve better outcomes. Such data could also be used by payers considering tiered networks and by physician organizations participating in risk contracts for decisions about where to refer patients with cancer for treatment,” she said.
Rectifying a ‘misalignment’
The researchers also said the findings reveal competing incentives, with commercial payers wanting to steer patients away from high-cost hospitals but health systems hoping to maximize surgical volume at lucrative referral centers.
“Value-based or bundled payment reimbursement for surgical episodes, particularly when paired with mandatory reporting on surgical outcomes, could help to rectify this misalignment,” they said.
Out-of-pocket spending wasn’t analyzed in the study, so it’s unknown how the higher prices at NCI centers hit patients in the pocketbook.
Meanwhile, non-NCI academic hospitals also had higher insurer prices paid than community hospitals, but the differences were not statistically significant, nor were differences in the study’s utilization outcomes.
Over half the patients had breast cancer, about one-third had colon cancer, and the rest had lung tumors. Patients treated at NCI centers tended to be younger than those treated at community hospitals and more likely to be women, but comorbidity scores were similar between the groups.
NCI centers, compared with community hospitals, were larger with higher surgical volumes and in more populated areas. They also had higher rates of laparoscopic partial colectomies and pneumonectomies.
Data came from the Health Care Cost Institute’s national commercial claims data set, which includes claims from three of the country’s five largest commercial insurers: Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare.
The work was funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Takvorian and Dr. Keating didn’t have any disclosures. One of Dr. Takvorian’s coauthors reported grants and/or personal fees from several sources, including Pfizer, UnitedHealthcare, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.
FROM JAMA NETWORK OPEN