Epidemiological disease burden and annual health insurance treatment cost of colorectal cancer in Hungary

Abstract

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer and the second most common cause of mortality in Hungary in both sexes. Objective: The aim of our study was to determine the annual epidemiological disease burden and health insurance cost of colorectal cancer in Hungary. Data and methods: Data were derived from the financial database of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA) of Hungary for the year 2018. Types of cancer were identified with the following codes of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision: C18, C19, C20, C21, D010-D014, D12. The data analysed included annual patient numbers according to age groups and sex, prevalence of care utilisation per 100 000 population, and annual health insurance costs for all types of care and all cancer types. Results: In 2018, NHIFA spent 21.7 billion HUF (80.2 million USD, 68.0 million EUR) on the treatment of colorectal cancer. 58.0% of the costs was spent on acute inpatient care. Regarding total costs, the highest costs were found in the 65-74 age group in both men (4.98 billion HUF) and women (3.25 billion HUF). The highest patient numbers were in outpatient care: 88 134 patients, general practice care (55 324 patients) and CT, MRI (28 426 patients). The annual health care treatment cost per patient was 1.206 million HUF (4463 USD/3782 EUR) in men and 1.260 million HUF (4661 USD/3950 EUR) in women. Conclusion: Acute inpatient care, including the costs of oncotherapeutic pharmaceuticals, was found to be the major cost driver in Hungary.