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Medical costs according to the stages of colorectal cancer: an analysis of health insurance claims in Hachioji, Japan

  • Original Article—Alimentary Tract
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Abstract

Background

Although the effect of the early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) on medical costs needs to be clarified, there are few reports on the actual medical costs of CRC patients in Japan. We aimed to identify medical costs according to CRC stage, using health insurance claims.

Methods

This observational study included CRC patients who had received specific treatment for CRC, which was defined by the procedure code and the claim computer processing system code associated with the treatment of CRC. CRC patients who underwent endoscopic or radical surgical treatment were defined as the curable group and those with palliative treatment, including palliative chemotherapy, as the non-curable group. Total medical costs and medical costs of specific treatments for CRC for 3 years were measured using the claims held by Hachioji City from May 2014 to July 2019.

Results

This study included 442 patients in the curable group, including 267 patients who underwent endoscopic treatment, and 175 patients who underwent radical surgical treatment, and 161 patients in the non-curable group. The mean (standard deviation) total medical costs in the curable and non-curable groups were 2,130 (2,494) and 8,279 (5,600) thousand Japanese Yen (JPY), respectively. The mean (standard deviation) medical costs for the specific treatment of CRC in the curable and non-curable groups were 408 (352) and 3,685 (3,479) thousand JPY, respectively.

Conclusions

We clarified the actual medical costs of CRC in curable and non-curable groups. These results suggest the effect of early detection of CRC in reducing medical costs.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to everyone at Hachioji City involved in this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, 54 Kawaharacho, Shogoin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan

    Takahiro Utsumi & Hiroshi Seno

  2. Institute for Advancement of Clinical and Translational Science (iACT), Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto, Japan

    Takahiro Horimatsu

  3. Department of Health Informatics, Kyoto University School of Public Health, Kyoto, Japan

    Yoshitaka Nishikawa, Yoshimitsu Takahashi & Takeo Nakayama

  4. Department of Surgery, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

    Nobuaki Hoshino

  5. Graduate School of Business Administration, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

    Rei Goto

  6. Cancerscan, Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

    Soichiro Kashihara & Jun Fukuyoshi

Authors
  1. Takahiro Utsumi
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  2. Takahiro Horimatsu
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  3. Yoshitaka Nishikawa
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  4. Nobuaki Hoshino
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  5. Yoshimitsu Takahashi
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  6. Rei Goto
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  7. Soichiro Kashihara
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  8. Jun Fukuyoshi
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  9. Takeo Nakayama
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  10. Hiroshi Seno
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Contributions

Conception and design: TU, TH, YN, YT, JF, TN, and HS. Analysis and interpretation of the data: TU, TH, YN, NH, YT, RG, SK, JF, TN, and HS. Drafting of the article: TU, TH, and YN. Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: NH, YT, RG, SK, JF, TN, and HS.Final approval of the article: TU, TH, YN, NH, YT, RG, SK, JF, TN, and HS.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takahiro Utsumi.

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Conflict of interest

Jun Fukuyoshi is the founder of Cancerscan Co. Ltd. Soichiro Kashihara is a member of Cancerscan Co. Ltd. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Cite this article

Utsumi, T., Horimatsu, T., Nishikawa, Y. et al. Medical costs according to the stages of colorectal cancer: an analysis of health insurance claims in Hachioji, Japan. J Gastroenterol 56, 903–913 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-021-01798-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00535-021-01798-9

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