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Location of cancer surgery for older veterans with cancer
Elena M Kouri1, Mary Beth Landrum, Elizabeth B Lamont
1Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Objective:
Many veterans undergo cancer surgery outside of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). We assessed to what extent these patients obtained care in the VHA before surgery.
Data Sources:
VHA-Medicare data, VHA administrative data, and Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry data.
Study Design:
We identified patients aged ≥65 years in the VHA-Medicare cohort who underwent lung or colon cancer resection outside the VHA and assessed VHA visits in the year before surgery.
Principal Findings:
Over 60% of patients in the VHA-Medicare cohort who received lung or colon cancer surgeries outside the VHA did not receive any care in VHA before surgery.
Conclusions:
Veterans' receipt of major cancer surgery outside the VHA probably reflects usual private sector care among veterans who are infrequent VHA users.