Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Healthcare Costs Cancer topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
HSS review: cancer care accounts for 10% of medical spend; screening and early detection prioritized
Summary
Aon and HSS analytics staff told the board that 7% of HSS members were in active cancer treatment in 2018, accounting for roughly 10% of medical spend; HSS will track stage at diagnosis and work with plans to increase screening for breast, cervical and colon cancers.
Aon vice president Paige Sipes Metzler and Marina Coleridge presented cancer care utilization and cost findings for the HSS population, focusing on the 2018 data year.
Sipes Metzler said 7% of the HSS population were in active cancer treatment during 2018 and that active cancer accounted for about 10% of medical spending. The top cancers by cost included breast cancer, leukemia, lung cancer and lymphoma; specialty drugs and outpatient treatments are increasing the share of total cost in the outpatient and pharmacy settings.
The presentation showed Kaiser performing at or above several screening benchmarks and noted opportunities to increase breast, cervical and colon screening across other plans. Early detection was highlighted as the most cost-effective approach: "an early cancer is only about $16,000; a late-stage cancer is $41,000 or greater," Sipes Metzler said. The board and staff discussed trends, anomalies in year-to-year counts (2017 appeared anomalously low in some charts) and the need to monitor trends by plan and by stage at diagnosis.
HSS staff said they will continue to report on prevalence, stage at diagnosis and targeted interventions with health-plan partners to raise screening rates and catch cancers earlier.
