Incremental health care expenditures for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in comparison with other cancers: Analysis of national survey data.

BACKGROUND: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is among the most common cancers in the United States, with an estimated annual incidence of more than 80,000 and a high survival rate. However, limited national data exist regarding the health care burden of NHL. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incremental health care expenditures among patients with NHL using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data compared with patients with other cancers. METHODS: This observational cross-sectional study included all patients with NHL (≥ 18 years) and all individuals diagnosed with other cancers from the MEPS 2014-2019. The components of health care expenditures included hospital inpatient care, office-based visits, outpatient care, emergency department, prescription medications, dental, home health, and other expenditures. Patients with NHL and those diagnosed with other cancers were identified from the full-year consolidated MEPS Household Component 2014-2019. Descriptive weighted analysis was used to compare the health care expenditure components between individuals with NHL and all other cancers. A 2-part model using probit and generalized linear models with a log link function was used to estimate the incremental increase in total health care expenditures for NHL compared with all other cancers. RESULTS: According to the MEPS, there were 0.74 million patients with NHL (95% CI = 0.62-0.86) and 27.91 million patients with other cancers (95% CI = 26.69-29.13) annually. Most of the patients with NHL were White (78.36%), male (60.67%), and older than 65 years (45.8%). The unadjusted analysis indicated a total annual expenditure of $21,698 (95% CI = $16,752-$26,645) for NHL, which was significantly higher than the annual expenditure for patients with other cancers ($15,029 [95% CI = $14,476-$15,582]). Most of the total health expenditure of both the NHL group and the other cancers group was distributed in 3 categories of hospital inpatient care (29.15% vs 26.29%), office-based visits (28.10% vs 25.08%), and prescription medications (19.03% vs 22.57%). Based on the 2-part model adjusted for all covariates, the annual health care expenditure for NHL was $7,284 (95% CI = $1,432-$13,135), higher than the expenditure of patients diagnosed with all other cancers. Among the health care expenditure components, the office-based visits were $2,641 higher for patients with NHL compared with the other cancers group (95% CI = $1,129-$4,153). CONCLUSIONS: The economic burden of NHL is higher compared with other cancers. Most of the NHL expenditures were attributable to hospital inpatient services and office-based visits. The study findings can inform value-based care considerations because of a better understanding of utilization and care patterns for NHL. DISCLOSURES: Dr Aparasu has received research funding from Astellas Inc., Incyte Corp., Gilead, and Novartis Inc. for projects unrelated to the current work. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest for this article. We confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.