New Cancer Study Findings Have Been Reported by a Researcher at Wayne State University School of Medicine (Association of Medicaid Privatization With Patient Cancer Outcomes): Cancer

2024 FEB 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on cancer. According to news reporting out of Detroit, Michigan, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Increasingly, states outsource administration of Medicaid insurance to privately administered Medicaid managed care organizations. However, on January 1, 2012, Connecticut transitioned from a privately to publicly administered Medicaid system.”

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Wayne State University School of Medicine: “New Jersey retained a private model. Our objective was to assess rates of early-stage cancer diagnosis and cancer survival in two states with similar sociodemographic characteristics but differing exposures to Medicaid privatization. Using data from the SEER Program between 2007 and 2016, Connecticut and New Jersey Medicaid patients with 10 common solid cancers including breast, lung, colorectal, prostate, kidney, bladder, cervix, uterus, head and neck cancer, and melanoma were included. A difference-in-differences analysis of stage of cancer presentation and cancer survival in Connecticut (intervention) was compared with New Jersey (control). Among 29,328 patients (14,424 patients from Connecticut and 14,904 patients from New Jersey) parallel trends were verified in early cancer diagnosis and survival for both states under privately administered Medicaid (pre-exposure). Connecticut’s transition from privately to publicly administered Medicaid was associated with an adjusted 4.0% increase in overall early-stage cancer diagnosis (95% CI, +1.7% to +6.2%) and a 4.7% increase in early-stage cancer diagnosis for cancers with US Preventive Services Taskforce A/B recommendations for cancer screening (95% CI, 1.6% to 7.8%). Public administration of Medicaid was also associated with improved overall survival after cancer diagnosis (hazard ratio, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.85 to 0.99]). No changes were observed in New Jersey.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Transition from private to public administration of Medicaid in Connecticut was associated with earlier-stage cancer diagnosis and improved cancer survival.”

For more information on this research see: Association of Medicaid Privatization With Patient Cancer Outcomes. JCO Oncology Practice, 2024. The publisher for JCO Oncology Practice is American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1200/op.23.00297.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Pranit R. Sunkara, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, United States. Additional authors for this research include Jacob Waitzman, Nicholas R. Lenze, Michael J. Brenner, John D. Cramer.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the authors of this research: Pranit R. Sunkara (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4275-8939), Jacob Waitzman (http://orcid.org/0009-0006-6371-6729), Nicholas R. Lenze (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2126-6663), Michael J. Brenner (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4926-0957), John D. Cramer (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6869-8554).

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