Hospital costs, cancer patients and medical diagnosis-related groups

• Published in: Oncology Vol. 45; no. 5; p. 401
• Main Authors: Muñoz, E, Chalfin, D, Rosner, F, Cohen, J R, Mulloy, K, Wise, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland 1988
• Subjects: Costs and Cost Analysis; Diagnosis-Related Groups; Humans; Neoplasms - therapy
• ISSN: 0030-2414
• DOI: 10.1159/000226651

This study analyzed hospital resource consumption for 5,065 Medicare patients in 90 noncancer designated medical diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) by whether or not patients had a diagnosis of a malignancy (i.e. cancer). Patients with cancer had greater hospital resource utilization than noncancer patients in these medical DRGs. Cancer patients had a greater percentage of outliers (p less than 0.02), twice the financial loss under DRGs, more diagnoses (p less than 0.001) and procedures (p less than 0.0001) per patient, and a greater mortality (p less than 0.0001) than noncancer patients. These findings raise the question of the equity of DRG payment vis-à-vis medical cancer patients in many medical DRGs, and whether the DRG scheme may provide disincentives to treat some elderly Americans with cancer.