From 2002 to 2006, costs of skin cancer treatments in the United States were set at $3.6 billion every year. In the next five years, that amount rose to $8.1 billion annually, an increase of 126 percent. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that's five times more compared to treatment costs for other types of cancer within the same period.
Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Monday, the CDC's study highlights the economic burden that skin cancer brings to the country's health care system, most especially when it's a highly preventable disease. Other cancer treatments have also increased in cost but researchers were surprised at the spike in skin cancer treatment costs.
There are several reasons why costs of treating skin cancer have risen. First, the number of people being treated has also risen. From about 3.4 million annual skin cancer cases during the first half of the study, the number of people affected swelled to nearly five million between 2007 and 2011.
"It's clear that not enough has been done in terms of skin cancer prevention behaviors. In a lot of these cases, skin cancer, for the most part, is preventable. We know sun safety and avoiding indoor tanning go a long way," said Gery Guy from the CDC's Cancer Prevention and Control division and lead author for the study.
While better prevention efforts could've helped cut back on the number of skin cancer cases, thereby reducing overall treatment costs for the cancer, it has to be noted as well that costs per patient also went up because more treatments were being done in more expensive hospitals. Because of this, costs rose to $1,600 per patient in the five years after 2006. From 2002 to 2006, skin cancer treatment roughly cost $1,000.
The good news is patients may not exactly feel the increase in cost treatment because out-of-pocket payments have slightly decreased over the years. Medicare and private health insurance providers are feeling the brunt of the cost increase as they are significantly paying more for treating skin cancer patients.
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S. In 2011, 70,853 people were diagnosed in the country to have melanomas of the skin. In the same year, 12,212 people died from melanomas of the skin, 67 percent of which are male.
Aside from Guy, Steven Machlin, Donatus Ekwueme, and K. Robin Yabroff also worked on the study.
