Cancer hospitals across the nation are marking up the price of cancer therapies for health insurers anywhere from double to nearly seven times the cost of acquiring them, a study published April 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine found.
Researchers performed a cross-sectional analysis of private payer–specific negotiated prices for therapies at National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers from April 1 to Oct. 15, 2021. They also determined whether each center participated in the federal 340B drug-pricing program, which allows the purchase of discounted outpatient drugs, and the 25 parenteral cancer therapies by Medicare Part B spending in 2019.
Price markups for each cancer therapy were calculated as the difference between payer-specific prices and estimated acquisition costs.
Four findings:
- Of the 61 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers included in the study, 27 disclosed private payer-specific prices for at least one popular cancer therapy.
- Median drug price markups at all centers and payers ranged from 118.4 percent and 633.6 percent.
- Across-center price ratios, the ratio between the 90th percentile and 10th percentile median prices across centers, ranged between 2.2 and 15.8.
- Median within-center price ratios, the ratio between the 90th percentile and 10th percentile prices between payers, ranged from 1.8 to 2.5.