Prostate cancer with bone metastasis: budget impact to the Brazilian Private Heathcare System

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the total cost impact of treatment of prostate cancer with bone metastasis under the Brazilian Private Healthcare System (SSS) perspective. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted from an administrative database provided by Orizon. The population consisted in patients with prostate cancer with bone metastasis registry, or related procedures, who were registered at hospital or ambulatory admission, and received at least one type of treatment. The perspective of the analysis was SSS and the time horizon was a median of 181 days. The primary outcome was global cost, considering expenses with exams, procedures, materials and drugs. From the primary outcome, cost per patient, number of visits per patient, and visit cost were calculated. Additionally, the costs related to the different subgroups of disease treatments were analyzed. Results: The global cost related to visits was R$ 21,391,034 (n = 181), the average cost resulted in R$ 118,183 per patient, with an average of 10.48 visits per patient and R$ 11,282 per visit. By the isolated analysis of the scenarios, the costs in the hospital (R$ 11,452,496) and ambulatory (R$ 9,938,537) environment demonstrated more expenses related to hospital procedures. Conclusions: The study demonstrated elevated budget impact of prostate cancer with bone metastasis treatment on the SSS, mainly due to greater need for the number of hospitalizations with a longer stay.