Impact of Medicaid Enrollment Timing on Tumor Stage at Diagnosis and Survival in Breast, Colorectal, and Lung Cancer

TL;DR

Medicaid enrollment timing affects cancer diagnosis stage and survival, with post-diagnosis enrollment linked to worse outcomes for most cancers.

Contribution

This study reveals how Medicaid enrollment timing influences cancer outcomes, highlighting disparities in late-stage diagnosis and survival.

Findings

Post-diagnosis Medicaid enrollees had the highest odds of late-stage cancer diagnosis across all three cancer types.

Cancer-specific mortality was higher for both pre- and post-diagnosis Medicaid enrollees compared to non-Medicaid patients.

Post-diagnosis enrollment was associated with higher mortality for localized-stage colorectal and lung cancers but lower mortality for distant-stage breast cancer.

Abstract

Background: Medicaid-insured patients experience higher rates of late-stage cancer diagnosis and worse survival than non-Medicaid patients. The impact of Medicaid enrollment timing on cancer outcomes is less clear. This study examines the association between Medicaid enrollment and timing with tumor stage and cancer-specific survival for breast, colorectal, and lung cancers. Methods: We analyzed SEER-Medicaid linked data for 276,755 breast, 104,784 colorectal, and 101,058 lung cancer patients < 65 years of age. Patients were categorized as non-Medicaid enrollees, pre-diagnosis enrollees (≥12 months before), or post-diagnosis enrollees (≤12 months after). Multivariable logistic regression estimated odds ratios of late-stage diagnosis, and cause-specific Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess cancer-specific survival, adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic factors. Results: Compared to non-Medicaid enrollees, post-diagnosis enrollees had the highest odds of late-stage diagnosis (breast cancer: OR: 3.41; colorectal cancer: OR: 3.78; lung cancer: OR: 1.87). Pre-diagnosis enrollees also had increased odds, but the association was weaker than post-diagnosis enrollees. Cancer-specific mortality was higher for both pre- and post-diagnosis enrollees compared to non-Medicaid enrollees for each cancer examined across tumor stage at diagnosis. Among Medicaid enrollees, those enrolled post-diagnosis had higher cancer-specific mortality than those enrolled pre-diagnosis for localized-stage colorectal (HR: 1.82) and lung cancer (HR: 1.30). In contrast, those enrolled post-diagnosis had lower mortality than those enrolled pre diagnosis for distant-stage breast cancer (HR: 0.91). Conclusions: Compared with cancer patients not insured by Medicaid, post-diagnosis Medicaid enrollment was associated with a greater likelihood of late-stage cancer and worse cancer-specific survival across each cancer type examined. Future research is warranted to examine the role of Medicaid enrollment timing in cancer care to better understand its impact on cancer outcomes.