Health Affairs: Price Differences To Insurers For Infused Cancer Drugs In Hospital Outpatient Departments And Physician Offices

The prices paid in 2019 by Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans in hospital outpatient departments were double those paid in physician offices for biologics, chemotherapies, and other infused cancer drugs (99–104 percent higher) and for infused hormonal therapies (68 percent higher). Had these plans excluded hospital clinics from their networks, channeling all of the infusions to physician offices, they would have saved $1.28 billion per year, or 26 percent of what they actually paid. Had they relied on cost-sharing incentives to channel infusions to physician offices—with either uniform 20 percent coinsurance or reference pricing—they would have realized savings but increased the financial burden on patients who received care at the higher-price hospital clinics. Under 20 percent coinsurance, patients’ payment obligations for care at hospital clinics would have exceeded those for care in physician offices by a median of 67 percent for biologics, 72 percent for chemotherapies, 87 percent for hormonal therapies, and 75 percent for other cancer drugs. Large savings are potentially available to commercial insurers from shifting cancer infusion care to nonhospital settings, but cost-sharing burdens could become very high for patients.