Medical care costs of cancer in the last year of life using national health insurance data in Korea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Medical care of cancer patients at the end-of-life is costly. This study aims to describe the monthly trends of EOL medical care, drug therapy, and chemotherapy costs per patient with cancer in the last year of life in the inpatients vs. outpatient setting for the 13 most prevalent cancers in Korea.

Methods

Using the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) database, we identified the patients who had been treated for the primary diagnoses of one of the 13 most prevalent cancers in Korea and died between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2015. We calculated the mean monthly costs of medical care, drug therapy, and chemotherapy per patient in the last year of life by cancer site and patient setting (inpatient vs. outpatient).

Results

For most can

SUBMITTER: Park M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5991689 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature