Leukemia therapy Medicare rates
Executive Summary
HHS would create a separate Medicare hospital diagnosis- related group (DRG 492) for chemotherapy patients with acute leukemia to reflect their more costly care versus nonleukemia cancer patients, under proposed changes to the DRG system published in the June 3 Federal Register. DRG 492's price would be about five times more than DRG 410 under the proposal. The DRG revisions were advocated by Cetus with support from Health Technology Associates and Fox, Bennett and Turner. HTA found that the median treatment cost for DRG 410 patients is $ 3,203, while patients with leukemias or testicular cancer cost $ 6,000 or more, and those with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia cost $ 14,488.