Publications

BACKGROUND

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Veterans Health Administration (VA) will report 30-day stroke readmission rates as a measure of hospital quality. A national debate on whether social risk factors should be included in models developed for hospital profiling is ongoing.

OBJECTIVE

To compare a CMS-based model of 30-day readmission with a more comprehensive model that includes measures of social risk (such as homelessness) or clinical factors (such as stroke severity and functional status).

DESIGN

Data from a retrospective cohort study were used to develop a CMS-based 30-day readmission model that included age and comorbid conditions based on codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (model 1). This model was then compared with one that included administrative social risk factors (model 2). Finally, the CMS model (model 1) was compared with a model that included social risk and clinical factors from chart review (model 3). These 3 models were used to rank hospitals by 30-day risk-standardized readmission rates and examine facility rankings among the models.

SETTING

Hospitals in the VA.

PARTICIPANTS

Patients hospitalized with stroke in 2007.

MEASUREMENTS

30-day readmission rates.

RESULTS

The 30-day readmission rate was 12.8%. The c-statistics for the 3 models were 0.636, 0.646, and 0.661, respectively. All hospitals were classified as performing "as expected" using all 3 models (that is, performance did not differ from the VA national average); therefore, the addition of detailed clinical information or social risk factors did not alter assessment of facility performance.

LIMITATION

A predominantly male veteran cohort limits the generalizability of these findings.

CONCLUSION

In the VA, more comprehensive models that included social risk and clinical factors did not affect hospital comparisons based on 30-day readmission rates.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

PURPOSE

Approximately 18,500 persons are diagnosed with malignant glioma in the United States annually. Few studies have investigated the comprehensive economic costs. We reviewed the literature to examine costs to patients with malignant glioma and their families, payers, and society.

METHODS

A total of 18 fully extracted studies were included. Data were collected on direct and indirect costs, and cost estimates were converted to US dollars using the conversion rate calculated from the study's publication date, and updated to 2011 values after adjustment for inflation. A standardized data abstraction form was used. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by another.

RESULTS

Before approval of effective chemotherapeutic agents for malignant gliomas, estimated total direct medical costs in the United States for surgery and radiation therapy per patient ranged from $50,600 to $92,700. The addition of temozolomide (TMZ) and bevacizumab to glioblastoma treatment regimens has resulted in increased overall costs for glioma care. Although health care costs are now less front-loaded, they have increased over the course of illness. Analysis using a willingness-to-pay threshold of $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year suggests that the benefits of TMZ fall on the edge of acceptable therapies. Furthermore, indirect medical costs, such as productivity losses, are not trivial.

CONCLUSION

With increased chemotherapy use for malignant glioma, the paradigm for treatment and associated out-of-pocket and total medical costs continue to evolve. Larger out-of-pocket costs may influence the choice of chemotherapeutic agents, the economic implications of which should be evaluated prospectively.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in adolescents and young adults (AYA) is characterized by distinct presenting features and inferior prognosis compared with pediatric ALL. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to comprehensively identify inherited genetic variants associated with susceptibility to AYA ALL. In the discovery GWAS, we compared genotype frequency at 635 297 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 308 AYA ALL cases and 6,661 non-ALL controls by using a logistic regression model with genetic ancestry as a covariate. SNPs that reached P ≤ 5 × 10(-8) in GWAS were tested in an independent cohort of 162 AYA ALL cases and 5,755 non-ALL controls. We identified a single genome-wide significant susceptibility locus in GATA3: rs3824662, odds ratio (OR), 1.77 (P = 2.8 × 10(-10)) and rs3781093, OR, 1.73 (P = 3.2 × 10(-9)). These findings were validated in the replication cohort. The risk allele at rs3824662 was most frequent in Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-like ALL but also conferred susceptibility to non-Ph-like ALL in AYAs. In 1,827 non-selected ALL cases, the risk allele frequency at this SNP was positively correlated with age at diagnosis (P = 6.29 × 10(-11)). Our results from this first GWAS of AYA ALL susceptibility point to unique biology underlying leukemogenesis and potentially distinct disease etiology by age group.