Surg-10. impact of insurance status and race on receipt of surgery for acoustic neuroma: a national cancer database analysis

CONCLUSIONS:Elderly age, African-American race (by 30%), Medicare insurance (by 40%) and treatment at a community hospital (by 60%) were independent predictors for reduced receipt of AN surgery. Conversely, Medicaid insurance (by 20%), Charlson/Deyo score of one, central United States location, and treatment at an integrated network (by 20%) independently predicted increased receipt of AN surgery. Given that the adjusted relative risk for in-hospital mortality of AN surgery for African-Americans is 10.6 compared with Caucasians (Curry et al., 2009), and that private insurance reduces in-hospital and perioperative morbidity by 42% compared with non-private insurance (McClelland et al., 2011), these findings indicate that while it may be beneficial for African-American and Medicare insurance patients to be steered away from surgery, it is likely detrimental for Medicaid insurance patients to be steered towards AN surgery.
Source: Neuro-Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: SURGICAL THERAPY Source Type: research