A retrospective study of patients' out-of-pocket costs for granulocyte colony-stimulating factors.
OBJECTIVE
With rising healthcare costs, there is an increasing concern with the burden of out-of-pocket costs on cancer patients. This study examined patients' out-of-pocket expenditures for granulocyte colony-stimulating factors, pegfilgrastim and filgrastim, which are given to cancer patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy and have been shown to decrease the incidence of febrile neutropenia.


METHODS
Adult patients who received chemotherapy and granulocyte colony-stimulating factors in the outpatient setting in the United States between January 2007 and June 2010 were evaluated using medical and pharmacy claims data from two healthcare data sources, the MarketScan(®) Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Databases and the HealthCore Integrated Research Database(SM). The distribution of out-of-pocket costs for granulocyte colony-stimulating factors per patient and per administration was described for each quarter. Longitudinal analyses of out-of-pocket costs for granulocyte colony-stimulating factors were also performed for patients with continuous health plan eligibility during each calendar year from 2007 to 2009.


RESULTS
The pattern of out-of-pocket expenditures for pegfilgrastim and filgrastim was generally consistent between the databases and over time. On average, about 65%-75% of patients had zero quarterly out-of-pocket costs for granulocyte colony-stimulating factors. Across the years, the mean quarterly out-of-pocket costs per patient were $100-$150 and $50-$80 for pegfilgrastim and filgrastim, respectively. The mean quarterly out-of-pocket costs for granulocyte colony-stimulating factors per administration were $40-$70 and $8-$10, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
In this retrospective analysis of medical and pharmacy claims data, most patients who received chemotherapy and granulocyte colony-stimulating factors in 2007 to 2010 had incurred no quarterly out-of-pocket costs associated with G-CSF use.
Oxford PharmaGenesis, Newtown, PA, USA.
Karen
K
Tomic
Stacey
S
Long
Xiaoyan
X
Li
An-Chen
AC
Fu
Tzy-Chyi
TC
Yu
Richard
R
Barron
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000191:economics; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016208:Databases, Factual; D016527:Drug Costs; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control; D000069585:Filgrastim; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000191:economics; D016179:Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D009503:Neutropenia / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016179:Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor; C455861:pegfilgrastim; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D000069585:Filgrastim
Out-of-pocket costs; claims database; filgrastim; granulocyte colony-stimulating factors; pegfilgrastim