Table 2.
Medicare Expenditures on Breast Cancer–Related Care across Hospital Referral Regions (HRRs)
| Cost Component | All HRRs | HRR Quintiles, Based on Average per Patient Medicare Expenditure on Initial Breast Cancer Care | Difference between Quintile 1 and Quintile 5 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | Standard Deviation | 1 (Lowest) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (Highest) | ||
| Total expenditure—cases | $29,452 | $3,773 | $24,617 | $28,077 | $29,861 | $31,207 | $34,062 | $9,445 |
| Total expenditure—controls | $10,200 | $1,889 | $9,546 | $10,328 | $10,365 | $10,203 | $10,584 | $1,038 |
| Total breast cancer–related expenditurea | $19,255 | $2,977 | $15,053 | $17,760 | $19,525 | $20,993 | $23,480 | $8,427 |
| Surgery | $6,527 | $755 | $6,074 | $6,299 | $6,634 | $6,736 | $6,939 | $865 |
| Radiation therapy | $5,828 | $1,389 | $5,066 | $5,432 | $5,624 | $6,389 | $6,790 | $1,724 |
| Systemic therapy | $2,702 | $911 | $2,017 | $2,722 | $2,631 | $2,974 | $3,247 | $1,230 |
| Growth factors | $1,558 | $602 | $1,138 | $1,520 | $1,456 | $1,752 | $1,997 | $859 |
| Imaging services | $831 | $246 | $713 | $777 | $855 | $922 | $898 | $185 |
| Other expenditures | $1,805 | $1,599 | $63 | $1,000 | $2,297 | $2,231 | $3,605 | $3,542 |
Expenditures reflect inflation adjusted constant 2009 U.S. dollars and after removing regional differences in input prices. HRR quintiles were assigned based on simulated results from a hierarchical generalized linear regression model with no covariates but separate intercepts for cases and controls and HRR random effects for cases and controls to account for clustering in data within HRRs (Model 0).
a
For each HRR, the average per person expenditure on breast cancer–related care reflects the difference in mean expenditure between cases and controls.