CHARACTERIZING THE UTILIZATION OF THE TRILLIUM DRUG PROGRAM BY AN ONCOLOGY PATIENT POPULATION.
Author(s)
Cheng SY1, DeAngelis C2, Seung SJ3, Rahman F1, Chan K2, Earle C4, Mittmann N5
1Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2Odette Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, 3Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada, 4Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, ON, Canada, 5Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
OBJECTIVES: The Trillium Drug Program (TDP) is a provincial government program for residents of Ontario, Canada for whom perscription medications pose a large burden on their annual income. An oncological patient population is of particular interest due to rising cost of antineoplastic medications. There is little published information on recipients of TDP and the costs to the program. The aim of this study was to characterize the demographics and to investigate the cost for this population. METHODS: Individuals age < 65 with a cancer diagnosis from 2000-2009 were ascertained from the Ontario Cancer Registry. The Ontario Drug Benefit database was used to identify perscription medication claims to the TDP. We examined baseline demographics and claims-related characteristics for the study cohort. RESULTS: CONCLUSIONS: Our study is one of the first attempts characterizing TDP utilization in an oncology population, and results show that utilization increased over time and differed across cancer diagnoses. These results have public health and policy implications as antineoplastic drug costs continue to rise and place burden on patients.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2017-11, ISPOR Europe 2017, Glasgow, Scotland
Value in Health, Vol. 20, No. 9 (October 2017)
Code
PCN190
Topic
Economic Evaluation
Topic Subcategory
Cost/Cost of Illness/Resource Use Studies
Disease
Oncology