In a prior memorandum, we presented evidence documenting the growing share of Medicare oncology volume being billed in the outpatient hospital setting, in comparison to the physician office setting. In this report, we present our assessment of the cost consequences to the Medicare program of patients receiving chemotherapy services in physician offices versus hospital outpatient departments on the basis of Medicare data from the years 2009-2011.
In performing this analysis, we have focused on cross-site spending and payment rate differentials that result from differences in the utilization of drugs and services in addition to methodologies employed by Medicare to set payment rates in these two settings.
Read full document: Cost Differences in Cancer Care Across Settings