The Role of Price Variation in Economic Analyses for Cancer Screenings: A Rapid Review.

BACKGROUND

Health care spending continues to rise, and recent policies have made prices more visible.

PURPOSE: To assess how cost effectiveness analyses obtain price information for common cancer screenings and account for price variation.

METHODS

A systematic search of PUBMED was conducted, extracting studies from 2021 to 2024 in English and evaluating health care services in the USA. Cost-effectiveness analyses were included for four common cancer screenings: prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer. A single investigator extracted data and assessed quality, reviewed by a second investigator.

RESULTS

A total of 16 articles met inclusion criteria. Nearly all (94%) cited the Medicare Fee Schedule as the data source for pricing information. About half (44%) of analyses included a degree of price variation. Only three articles (19%) performed a cost-effectiveness analysis with a wide degree of price variation that accurately reflected the true degree of price variation observed in empirical data.

LIMITATIONS: The sample size of included studies was modest, and generalizability is limited beyond these four common cancer screenings.

CONCLUSIONS

Cost-effectiveness analyses in the USA need to reflect the wide price variation that exists in health care, and publicly available price transparency data should guide future work.