Use of and spending on medical equipment among cancer survivors.
Authors: Jafri Faraz , Patel Vishal R. , Hussaini S. M. Qasim , Premnath Naveen , Parsons Helen M. , Blaes Anne Hudson , Gupta Arjun 
Published: September 2024

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Background:
Cancer survivors are increasingly older, with rising rates of functional impairment, comorbidity burden, and needs. Patients often require medical equipment, but administrative barriers and lack of payer coverage can limit access and increase cost sharing for patients. Prior work on financial burdens has largely focused on direct medical costs and costs of prescription drugs. We sought to characterize patterns of use and costs associated with medical equipment use among US cancer survivors.
Methods:
We used the US National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)—a nationally representative survey of the US population— to identify self-reported use of medical equipment (‘’such as a cane, a wheelchair, a special bed etc.’’) among cancer survivors from 1997-2018. We then used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) — which includes additional data on health care costs and spending among people sampled from the NHIS— to evaluate out-of-pocket (OOP) and total spending on equipment (e.g., orthopedic items, prosthesis, bathroom aids, disposable supplies etc.) among cancer survivors from 2016-2020. We describe trends in prevalence of use, and compared OOP costs and percentage of cost sharing responsibility (OOP cost/total spending) for equipment relative to other medical care, such as prescription drugs.
Results:
We identified 55,625 cancer survivors in the NHIS, representing 19.1 million weighted individuals from 1997-2018. The weighted number of cancer survivors using medical equipment increased during the study period from 0.9 million in 1997 to 2.3 million 2018, a 2.4-fold increase. The number of survivors not requiring equipment increased by 1.7-fold during the same period. The adjusted prevalence of equipment use among survivors increased from 5.1% in 1999 to 7.9% in 2018, a 2.8 percentage-point increase (P < .001 for trend). We identified 32,106 cancer survivors (56.6% women, 55.9% ≥65 years) in MEPS from 2016-2020. Among users, mean annual total spending on equipment was 1,205, and mean OOP costs for equipment were 672. For comparison, mean annual OOP costs for prescription drugs was $541. The cost sharing responsibility for equipment (56%) was higher than that for all other comparison groups: prescription drugs (10%), outpatient visits (11%), occupational/physical therapy (18%), emergency room visits (20%), and hospitalization (3%).
Conclusions:
The number of US cancer survivors who use medical equipment has more than doubled during the past 20 years. For these patients, OOP costs for equipment are greater than that for prescription drugs, with patients responsible for over half the total spending. These data are particularly notable given that patterns of use and spending reported here do not capture survivors unable to access necessary equipment due to administrative, financial, and/or other barriers. Interventions to assess need, ensure access, and decrease associated financial burden are urgently needed.