Comparing Medical Costs, Utilization Rates for Patients With Both Diabetes and Cancer

In a recent study, researchers found that patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who have also been diagnosed with cancer incur higher direct medical costs than patients with diabetes alone.

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, and the University of York, York, UK, conducted a population-based retrospective analysis from 2006 to 2017 of 99,915 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients from Hong Kong Hospital Authority.

A total of 16,869 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with a cancer diagnosis were matched with 84,046 diabetes patients without any cancers using a matching ratio up to 1 to 5 propensity score-matching method. The patients were further divided into four cohorts, according to life expectancy.

Primary measures of the analysis included health care service utilization and direct medical costs during the index year, subsequent years, and the mortality year was compared between patients with and without cancer in each category. Costs reflect US dollars.

According to the results of the study, the medical costs of cancer patients in index year ranged from $27,533 for patients who died in less than 1 year, to $11,303 for those survived greater than three years.”

Patients with cancer were found to have significantly greater direct medical costs than the control group in the index year (all P<.001) and in subsequent years ($4569 vs $4155, P<.001).

The group of patients with cancer were also observed to have increased costs the year of their deaths or their mortality year. “The difference was significant for patients who survived greater than 3 years after index year ($32,558 vs $28,260),” noted the researchers.

“For patients in both groups, patients who survived >3 years had significantly lower costs than those died <1 year,” explained the researchers. “Costs incurred in mortality year were greater than those in index year and subsequent years.”

The study also revealed that hospitalization costs accounted for more than 90% of the overall medical costs for both groups in mortality year.

—Edan Stanley

Reference:

Wu T, Yang F, Chan WWL, Lam CLK, Wong CKH. Healthcare utilization and direct medical cost in the years during and after cancer diagnosis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus [published online ahead of print, 2020 May 29]. J Diabetes Investig. 2020;10.1111/jdi.13308. doi:10.1111/jdi.13308