Medtronic announced results of a study published in JAMA Network Open that demonstrates a reduction in health care utilization and cost for cancer pain patients using targeted drug delivery, or TDD and conventional medical management, or CMM, vs. CMM alone. The study found cost savings to payors, with fewer inpatient visits, shorter inpatient length of stay and fewer emergency department, or ED, visits for the TDD and CMM group. Over 12 months, TDD therapy was associated with a significant mean overall cost savings of $63,498 and fewer oral opioid prescriptions per patient. TDD, delivered via the Medtronic SynchroMed II infusion system, is an alternative to oral opioids for patients and provides pain relief at a fraction of the oral dose with fewer side effects and may help reduce the use of oral opioids. The paper reports the results of a retrospective propensity-score matched analysis conducted using a large U.S. claims database comparing mean total commercial payer costs and health care utilization at two, six, and 12 months. Researchers matched commercial insurance beneficiaries with patients with severe uncontrolled cancer pain receiving TDD and CMM or CMM alone. Participants were matched on age, sex, cancer type, comorbidity score and pre-enrollment characteristics. After matching, each group included 268 patients. The study showed that TDD and CMM is a cost-saving therapy to treat cancer pain, and based on these findings, increased use of TDD may have the potential to reduce future health care cost and utilization. As cancer rates continue increasing with the aging population, the authors concluded that considering more patients with significant cancer-related pain for TDD may result in substantial cost savings alongside improved quality of life.
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