Clinical Factors Associated With Cost in Head and Neck Cancer: Implications for a Bundled Payment Model

To determine which factors influence cost in head and neck cancer (HNC) to inform the development of a bundled payment model (BPM).

Patients with stages 0 to IVB (by American Joint Commission on Cancer, 7th edition) HNC of various sites and histology treated definitively at a single tertiary care center during 2013 were included. Clinical variables and direct cost data were obtained, and their associations were investigated using χ², t, Wilcoxon rank sum, and analysis of variance testing. Results were used to develop a BPM.

One hundred fifty patients were included; 87% were white, 74% were men, 48% had oropharyngeal cancer, and 58% had stage IVA disease. Treatment consisted of surgery alone (17%), radiation alone (11%), surgery plus radiation (14%), chemoradiation (45%), and surgery plus chemoradiation (13%). On multivariable analysis, both increasing group stage and number of treatment modalities used were significantly associated with higher cost. Given that stage often dictates treatment, we developed three cost tiers that were based on overall treatment modality. Tier A, the least costly, consisted of single-modality therapy with either surgery alone or radiation alone (median cost divided by the median overall cost of treatment, 0.54; 25th to 75th percentile range, 0.29 to 1.02), followed by tier B, which consisted of bimodality therapy with either chemoradiation or surgery plus radiation (1.03; range, 0.81 to 1.35), followed by tier C, which consisted of trimodality therapy with surgery plus chemoradiation (1.43; range, 1.10 to 1.96).

The number of treatment modalities required is the primary driver of cost in HNC. These data can simplify development of a comprehensive HNC BPM.