Predictors of high healthcare costs in elderly patients with liver cancer in end-of-life: a longitudinal population-based study

BACKGROUND: Studies have indicated a pervasive pattern of decreasing healthcare costs during elderly patients’ last year of life. The aim of this study was to explore the predictors of high healthcare costs (HC) in elderly liver cancer patients in Taiwan during their last month of life (LML). METHODS: Costs of hospitalization, outpatient visits, aggressiveness of care, and associated costs for elderly (age ≥ 65 y) patients with liver cancer in the LML were analyzed using a national insurance database. An HC was defined as being greater than the 90th percentile (US $5093) in the LML, amounting to 38.95% of total healthcare costs. RESULTS: We enrolled 2121 subjects who died during 1997–2011. Mean healthcare costs per person in their LML were US $8042 ± 3477 in the HC group and US $1407 ± 1464 in the non-HC group (p < 0.001). For patients receiving aggressive end-of-life (EOL) cancer care (e.g. intensive care, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, anticancer treatment, and a high number of admission days), comorbidities of chronic kidney disease, esophageal bleeding, and receiving opioids in the LML, were significantly independent positive predictors of HCs; but admission times, comorbidities of ascites, and hypertension were negative predictors. CONCLUSION: These findings could inform healthcare providers by avoiding aggressive treatments during EOL for elderly patients with liver cancer and to save on healthcare costs. Shorter admission days and more admission times in the last month of life could decrease healthcare costs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-017-3561-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.