The cost of prostate cancer care to society and to patients in the United States.

Abstract

116 Background: Our objectives are to characterize prostate cancer patient resource consumption and cost (I) to society, in 1 calendar year; and (II) to the patient, 1 year after his diagnosis. Methods: The MarketScan database was used to summarize cost, including gross payment to provider for service, copayment, and deductibles. We identified the top 20 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes to characterize which procedures drove costs for both objectives. For Objective I, diagnoses were identified in 1 calendar year (2014); codes and their costs for all patients were calculated. For Objective II, diagnoses were set at time = 0, and all CPT and International Classification of Diseases codes were characterized 1 year after diagnosis (2012-2013). Results: For objective I, there were 95,642 procedures totalling $38,696,423. The plurality of procedures were hospital consultations, level 2 (i.e. history + physical + straightforward decision-making; 17,103 performed, average $80 each, total $1,418,954) and level 3 (+ low complexity decision-making; 9,726 performed; average $127 each, total $1,232,928). The most costly procedure to society was a radical prostatectomy (8,883 performed, average $2,003 each, total $17,694,508) with accompanying anesthesia (7,960 performed, average $1262 each, total $10,048,653). For objective II (characterized in Table), the mean payment per month was $2,794, including mean gross cost $2,673, mean copayment $32, and mean deductible $46. Conclusions: The typical cost of therapy to a prostate cancer patient is $2,800/month after diagnosis, primarily from surgery (constituting the majority of cost to society) and subsequently from office visits (constituting the plurality of procedures). Societal measures to reduce cost should be aimed at the operating room and consultations.[Table: see text]