Site of Service Cost Differences for Medicare Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

Cancer is an important cost issue for Medicare. About eight million of the almost 14 million Americans living with cancer are over age 65, and approximately half of cancer care spending is associated with Medicare beneficiaries.

This paper examines differences in the cost of care for Medicare fee for service cancer patients depending on the site of chemotherapy service: a physician’s office or a hospital outpatient setting. The analysis is based on the Medicare Limited Data Set (LDS) for 2006-2009.

This paper was commissioned by McKesson Specialty Health, a division of McKesson Corporation, on behalf of The US Oncology Network.