Assessment of Cancer Care Costs in Disease-Specific Cancer Care Pathways

• Main Authors: Mattia Altini, Laura Solinas, Lauro Bucchi, Nicola Gentili, Davide Gallegati, William Balzi, Fabio Falcini, Ilaria Massa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: healthcare cost; cancer care cost; care pathway; administrative data
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4765

In view of an efficient use of the Italian National Health Service-funded healthcare resources, a novel data-processing strategy combining information from multiple sources was developed in a regional cancer network of northern Italy. The goal was to calculate the annual overall cost of care pathways of six disease groups in 10,486 patients. The evaluation was conceived as a population-based cost description from the perspective of the Italian National Health Service. Costs occurred during a defined time period for a cross-section of patients at varying stages of their disease were measured. The total cancer care cost was €81,170,121 (11.1% of total local health expenditure), with a cost per patient of €7741.17 and a cost per capita of €204.62. Surgical, inpatient and day-hospital medical admissions, radiotherapy, drugs, outpatient care, emergency admissions, and home and hospice care accounted for 21.2%, 24.1%, 6.2%, 28.2%, 14.0%, 0.9%, and 5.4% of the total cost, respectively. The highest cost items included drugs (cost per capita, €22.95; 11.2% of total cost) and medical admissions (€14.51; 7.1%) for blood cancer, and surgical (€14.56; 7.1%) and medical admissions (€13.60; 6.6%) for gastrointestinal cancer. The information extracted allows multidisciplinary cancer care teams to be more aware of the costs of their clinical decisions.