Survival of older patients with cancer in the Veterans Health Administration versus fee-for-service Medicare.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) provides high-quality preventive chronic care and cancer care, but few studies have documented improved patient outcomes that result from this high-quality care. We compared the survival rates of older patients with cancer in the VHA and fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare and examined whether differences in the stage at diagnosis, receipt of guideline-recommended therapies, and unmeasured characteristics explain survival differences.

Patients and methods

We used propensity-score methods to compare all-cause and cancer-specific survival rates for men older than age 65 years who were diagnosed or received their first course of treatment for colorectal, lung, lymphoma, or multiple myeloma in VHA hospitals from 2001 to 2004 to similar

SUBMITTER: Landrum MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3341151 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature