Associations Between Rehabilitation Utilization and Out-of-Pocket Costs Among Older Adults With Breast Cancer in the United States

Objective

To examine the association between rehabilitation utilization within 12 months of breast cancer diagnosis and out-of-pocket costs in the second year (12-24mo after diagnosis).

Design

Secondary analysis of the 2009-2019 Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare linked database. Individuals who received rehabilitation services were propensity-score matched to individuals who did not receive services. Overall and health care service-specific models were examined using generalized linear models with a gamma distribution.

Setting

Inpatient and outpatient medical facilities.

Participants

A total of 35,212 individuals diagnosed with nonmetastatic breast cancer and were continuously enrolled in Medicare Fee-For Service (parts A, B, and D) in the 12 months before and 24 months postdiagnosis.

Intervention

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures

Individual cost responsibility, a proxy for out-of-pocket costs, which was defined as deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments during the second year after diagnosis (12-24mo postdiagnosis).

Results

The mean individual cost responsibility was higher in individuals who used rehabilitation than those who did not ($4013 vs $3783), although it was not a clinically meaningful difference (d=0.06). Individuals who received rehabilitative services had significantly higher costs attributed to individual provider care ($1634 vs $1476), institutional outpatient costs ($886 vs $812), and prescription drugs ($959 vs $906), and significantly lower costs attributed to institutional inpatient costs ($455 vs $504), and durable medical equipment ($81 vs $86).

Conclusions

Older adults with breast cancer who received rehabilitation services had higher cost responsibility during the second year after diagnosis than those who did not. Future work is needed to examine the relationship between rehabilitation and out-of-pocket costs across longer periods of time and in conjunction with perceived benefit.