ReCAP: Economic Evaluation Alongside a Clinical Trial of Telephone Versus In-Person Genetic Counseling for BRCA1/2 Mutations in Geographically Underserved Areas [CARE DELIVERY]

This study conducted an economic evaluation alongside a clinical trial of approaches to extending the reach of genetic testing services to geographically underserved populations. SUMMARY ANSWER: Telephone genetic counseling was less expensive than in-person services delivered in the community per individual counseled, individual tested, or mutation detected. For example, it cost an average of $120 (range, $80 to $200) per person counseled in the telephone counseling arm compared with $270 (range, $180 to $400) for in-person counseling. One-way sensitivity analyses showed that the average cost per participant remained consistently lower in the telephone counseling arm than in the in-person counseling arm across the range values for each cost parameter and for each study outcome. METHODS: Microcosting was used to enumerate resources for counseling delivered at 14 primary care clinics (nine geographically remote, five urban) in Utah. Staff time and travel, space, overhead, patient time costs, and test costs were calculated on the basis of actual intervention use and valued using national data for wage rates, space, and overhead. We calculated the costs per arm for pretest counseling, uptake of BRCA1/BRCA2 testing, per mutation detected, and per completion of post-test genetic counseling at 6 months afterrandomization. Costs and effects were not discounted. BIAS, CONFOUNDING FACTOR(S), DRAWBACKS: The findings may not be generalizable to women in other geographically underserve...
Source: Journal of Oncology Practice - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Access to care, Epidemiology, Genetic Epidemiology CARE DELIVERY Source Type: research