Inappropriate Denials for Radiation Therapy in Medicare Advantage Plans.

IF 6.4 1区 医学 Q1 ONCOLOGY
Jared Pasetsky, Kishan Bhatt, Lisa A Kachnic, James B Yu, David P Horowitz
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Abstract

Purpose: Radiation oncologists are known to be burdened with prior authorization and insurance denials more than other medical specialties. This analysis sought to use publicly available data and determine whether Medicare Advantage plans are inappropriately denying radiation therapy (RT) services more than other health services.

Methods and materials: Data from the Appeals Decision Search on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website were extracted from 2022 through June 2024. The data contain appeal decisions from a third-party independent review entity, which uses Medicare coverage guidelines to determine the appropriateness of a denial. Percentages of inappropriate denials were calculated for RT services and all health services. A chi-square test was used to compare inappropriate denial levels between RT and everything else. Decisions were also filtered by "keyword" and "condition" to analyze trends in treatment modalities and diagnosis, respectively.

Results: RT services were inappropriately denied in 15.04%, 18.69%, and 16.01% of cases for 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively, while inappropriate denials for all health services were only 4.69%, 5.28%, and 3.44%, respectively. Overall, since 2022, 274 out of 1576 RT appeals were inappropriately denied (17.39%), while only 20,195 out of 433,788 total appeals were inappropriately denied for all health services (4.66%). The difference was statistically significant for all 3 years and for the entire time period, with all P values < .00001. Using keywords brachytherapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy, proton, and intensity-modulated RT, inappropriate denial rates varied at 12.75%, 26.11%, 13.02%, and 41.06%, respectively, from 2022 to 2024. Prostate cancer appeals for protons had particularly low rates of inappropriate denial at 3.45%, while breast cancer appeals for intensity-modulated RT had particularly high rates of inappropriate denial at 82.14%.

Conclusions: Medicare Advantage plans are inappropriately denying RT services more than non-RT services. These data warrant urgent policy changes to prevent Medicare-eligible patients from being inappropriately denied access to cancer treatments.

医疗保险优势计划不适当拒绝放射治疗。
目的:众所周知,与其他医疗专科相比,放射肿瘤科医生要承受更多的事先授权和保险拒绝负担。本分析试图利用公开数据,确定医疗保险优势计划(MA)是否比其他医疗服务更不适当地拒绝放射治疗(RT)服务:从联邦医疗保险与医疗补助服务中心(CMS)网站的 "上诉决定搜索 "中提取了 2022 年至 2024 年 6 月的数据。数据包含第三方独立审查实体(IRE)的上诉决定,该实体使用医疗保险承保指南来确定拒绝是否适当。计算了 RT 服务和所有医疗服务的不当拒绝百分比。使用卡方检验比较 RT 和其他服务的不适当拒绝水平。此外,还根据 "关键词 "和 "病情 "对拒绝决定进行了筛选,以分析治疗方式和诊断的趋势:在 2022 年、2023 年和 2024 年,RT 服务的不当拒绝率分别为 15.04%、18.69% 和 16.01%,而所有医疗服务的不当拒绝率分别仅为 4.69%、5.28% 和 3.44%。总体而言,自 2022 年以来,在 1576 份 RT 上诉中,有 274 份被不当驳回(17.39%),而在 433 788 份上诉中,只有 20195 份被不当驳回(4.66%)。在所有三年和整个时间段内,这一差异均具有统计学意义,所有 p 值均为结论:医疗保险计划不适当地拒绝 RT 服务的情况多于非 RT 服务。这些数据表明,应立即改变政策,防止符合医疗保险资格的患者被不适当地拒绝接受癌症治疗。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
11.00
自引率
7.10%
发文量
2538
审稿时长
6.6 weeks
期刊介绍: International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (IJROBP), known in the field as the Red Journal, publishes original laboratory and clinical investigations related to radiation oncology, radiation biology, medical physics, and both education and health policy as it relates to the field. This journal has a particular interest in original contributions of the following types: prospective clinical trials, outcomes research, and large database interrogation. In addition, it seeks reports of high-impact innovations in single or combined modality treatment, tumor sensitization, normal tissue protection (including both precision avoidance and pharmacologic means), brachytherapy, particle irradiation, and cancer imaging. Technical advances related to dosimetry and conformal radiation treatment planning are of interest, as are basic science studies investigating tumor physiology and the molecular biology underlying cancer and normal tissue radiation response.
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