Price Variation in Cancer Screenings: A Critical Aspect of Economic Analyses

A new study conducted by investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reveals that health care spending continues to rise, and recent policies have made prices more visible in the United States. The research aimed to assess how cost-effectiveness analyses obtain price information for common cancer screenings and account for price variation. A systematic search of PUBMED was conducted, extracting studies from 2021 to 2024 in English, and evaluating health care services in the USA. The findings suggest that nearly all (94%) of the included studies cited the Medicare Fee Schedule as the data source for pricing information, but only three articles (19%) performed a cost-effectiveness analysis with a wide degree of price variation that accurately reflected the true degree of price variation observed in empirical data.

Key Takeaways:

• A systematic search of PUBMED was conducted, extracting studies from 2021 to 2024 in English, and evaluating health care services in the USA.
• Nearly all (94%) of the included studies cited the Medicare Fee Schedule as the data source for pricing information.
• Only three articles (19%) performed a cost-effectiveness analysis with a wide degree of price variation that accurately reflected the true degree of price variation observed in empirical data.
• The sample size of included studies was modest, and generalizability is limited beyond these four common cancer screenings.
• The research concluded that cost-effectiveness analyses in the USA need to reflect the wide price variation that exists in health care, and publicly available price transparency data should guide future work.
• The study highlights the importance of considering price variation in cost-effectiveness analyses for cancer screenings.
• The research was conducted by Austin J. Triana and his team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Statistics:

• 94% of included studies cited the Medicare Fee Schedule as the data source for pricing information.
• 44% of analyses included a degree of price variation.
• 19% of articles performed a cost-effectiveness analysis with a wide degree of price variation that accurately reflected the true degree of price variation observed in empirical data.
• 16 articles met inclusion criteria for the study.
• The study included cost-effectiveness analyses for four common cancer screenings: prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.

Sources:

• Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, 2025.
• Springer Int Publ Ag, Gewerbestrasse 11, Cham, Ch-6330, Switzerland.
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States.
• Austin J. Triana, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States.
• PubMed database search (2021-2024).