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Updated: Mar 30, 2026
Cell Population Analyses During Skin Carcinogenesis
Published on: August 21, 2013
Medicare claims data reliably identify treatments for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma: a prospective
Bridie S Thompson1, Catherine M Olsen1, Padmini Subramaniam2
1Cancer Control Group, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Queensland.
Objective:
To investigate the accuracy of Medical Benefit Schedule (MBS) item numbers to identify treatments for basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCC).
Methods:
We linked records from QSkin Study participants (n=37,103) to Medicare. We measured the proportion of Medicare claims for primary excision of BCC/SCC that had corresponding claims for histopathology services. In subsets of participants, we estimated the sensitivity and external concordance of MBS item numbers for identifying BCC/SCC diagnoses by comparing against 'gold-standard' histopathology reports.
Results:
A total of 2,821 (7.6%) participants had 4,830 separate Medicare claims for BCC/SCC excision; almost all (97%) had contemporaneous Medicare claims for histopathology services. Among participants with BCC/SCC confirmed by histology reports, 76% had a corresponding Medicare claim for primary surgical excision of BCC/SCC. External concordance for Medicare claims for primary BCC/SCC excision was 68%, increasing to 97% when diagnoses for intra-epidermal carcinomas and keratoacanthomas were included.
Conclusions:
MBS item numbers for primary excision of BCC/SCC are reasonably reliable for determining incident cases of keratinocyte skin cancers, but may underestimate incidence by up to 24%.
Implications:
Medicare claims data may have utility in monitoring trends in conditions for which there is no mandatory reporting.
