A Statewide Intervention to Reduce Use of Unproven or Ineffective Breast Cancer Care

The goal of this project is to examine the effectiveness and potential cost savings of two organizational interventions aimed at reducing the use of ineffective or unproven care among women with incident breast cancer.

Challenged by public opinion, peers and the Congressional Budget Office, a number of specialty societies have recently begun to develop "Top Five" lists of relatively expensive procedures that do not provide meaningful benefit to at least some categories of patients for whom they are commonly ordered. The Choosing Wisely® campaign is the most visible example. The extent to which the development of these lists has influenced the behavior of physicians or patients, however, remains unknown. In this study, investigators partner with the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ), a statewide consortium of hospitals, medical practices and health systems, to examine the effectiveness of two organizational interventions in reducing unproven or ineffective breast cancer care. Two interventions will be tested: (a) A "basic" public reporting intervention which summarizes on a public website practice-level statistics regarding use of targeted ineffective or unproven interventions for breast cancer and (ii) an "enhanced" intervention, augmenting public reporting with a smart phone-based application (App) that gives providers just-in-time information, decision-making tools, and personalized patient education materials that support reductions in the use of breast cancer interventions targeted based upon Choosing Wisely® or national oncology society guidelines. Specifically, the aims are: (1) To examine whether basic public reporting reduces use of targeted breast cancer practices among a contemporary cohort of patients with incident breast cancer in the intervention state relative to usual care in comparison states, using Marketscan and Medicare claims data while adjusting for possible confounders and temporal trends; (2) To examine the effectiveness of the enhanced intervention relative to the basic intervention; and (3) To simulate cost savings forthcoming from nationwide implementation of both interventions (relative to each other and to usual care) and to describe the implications of these findings for reimbursement policy and program initiatives. The results will provide rigorous evidence regarding the effectiveness of a unique all-payer, all-age public reporting system for influencing provider behavior that may be easily exportable to other states. Findings will be further relevant to the ACO environment, which is expected to provide financial disincentives for providing ineffective or unproven care.

Participating health systems in Wisconsin. Interventions include: Basic public reporting and the enhanced intervention (app)

The basic intervention will comprise public reporting through the WCHQ website. Individual-level, claims data submitted for billing to third party payers by participating healthsystems will be used to (i) identify cohorts of women with incident breast cancer at the practice-level and (ii) construct the metrics for public reporting and individual benchmarking information. These data are consistent with Medicare and Marketscan claims in both format and content thereby ensuring seamless application of the validated algorithm as well as construction of outcome variables as proposed in Aims 1 and 2 of the study.

The enhanced intervention adds an app comprising a decision tool, patient education and communication information that will be delivering concise, readily accessible information about the main components of the intervention. Specifically, physicians in participating practices will be provided a smartphone-based, point-of-care application that will include i) a list of the unproven/ineffective interventions with statements about a) scientifically proven appropriate use; b) proven or suspected downsides to inappropriate use; ii) clinical calculators that allow physician to input individual patients' clinical/tumor characteristics for each test; iii) practice-specific summary of publicly reported results; and iv) printable patient information adapted from the ASCO Choosing Wisely website.

Comparison states will be used to evaluate the interventions in light of possible secular trends in the region and the nation. The design strategy will enable estimates of the effectiveness of the basic intervention (Aim 1) by comparing (i) the pre-intervention rates to post-intervention rates as well as by comparing (ii) changes between the pre- and post-intervention periods for the "treatment" state (WI) relative to comparison states, neighboring states and others. A similar approach will be used in Part II to provide estimates of the enhanced intervention's impact relative to the basic intervention and contemporary usual care provided in control states, thereby enabling the cost-savings analyses proposed as part of Aim 3.

Percentage of Women who received Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) after Breast Conserving Surgery (defined as CPT 77418, 77385, 77386).

The American Society for Radiation Oncology's Choosing Wisely® list recommends against performing IMRT, a 3-dimensional technique that has not been demonstrated to provide a significant clinical advantage over the standard 2-dimensional technique for whole breast radiation therapy after breast conserving surgery.

(CPT 19303 OR 19304 w/mod 50; OR ICD-9 85.35 OR 85.36 OR 85.42; OR two claims within 1 day with ICD-9 85.33 OR 85.34 OR 85.41 OR 85.43 OR 85.45 OR 85.47, EXCLUDING two 85.45 OR two 85.47 OR (85.45 AND 85.47); OR conditions (a) AND (b) The National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the Society of Surgical Oncology indicate that there are no proven survival benefits to performing a Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy (CPM: removal of the unaffected breast). Despite the lack of survival benefit, this procedure may be considered appropriate in cases where there is high risk of cancer occurring in the unaffected breast and/or radiographic surveillance of the unaffected breast would be difficult. Such factors may include genetic predisposition to breast cancer, strong family history of breast cancer, high-risk histology (atypical hyperplasia or lobular carcinoma in situ), prior radiation treatment to the chest, and dense breast tissue.

Date of ipsilateral mastectomy surgery plus 1 day. Excluded from denominator if had any genetic predisposition counseling, testing, or family history codes within 180-days prior to surgery.

Percentage of Women who received Tumor Biomarker Blood Testing for Surveillance (defined as CPT 82378 (CEA); 86300 (CA 15-3)

The American Society of Clinical Oncology's Choosing Wisely® list recommends against performing tumor biomarker blood tests (CA 15-3, CA 27.29, CEA) for breast cancer surveillance in asymptomatic women who have been treated with curative intent. Tumor markers may be indicated if there is concern for disease recurrence (development of symptoms or abnormal imaging findings).

Percentage of Women who received PET Scan or PET-CT Scan for Surveillance (defined as CPT 78811-78816; HCPCS G0235, G0252, S8085)

The American Society of Clinical Oncology's Choosing Wisely® list recommends against performing a positron emission tomography (PET) scan or a positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scan for routine breast cancer surveillance in asymptomatic patients who have been treated with curative intent, citing their unproven effectiveness in improving survival. PET/PET-CT scan may be indicated if there is concern for disease recurrence (development of symptoms or lab abnormalities) or to follow-up a prior abnormal PET/PET-CT scan finding.

Percentage of Women who received CT Scan for Surveillance (defined as CPT 71250, 71260, 71270, 72192-72194, 74150, 74160, 74170, 74176-74178)

The American Society of Clinical Oncology's Choosing Wisely® list recommends against performing a computerized tomography (CT or CAT) scan of the chest, abdomen or pelvis for routine breast cancer surveillance in asymptomatic patients who have been treated with curative intent, citing their unproven effectiveness in improving survival. CT scan may be indicated if there is concern for disease recurrence (development of symptoms or lab abnormalities) or to follow-up a prior abnormal CT scan finding.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology's Choosing Wisely® list recommends against performing a bone scan for routine breast cancer surveillance in asymptomatic patients who have been treated with curative intent, citing their unproven effectiveness in improving survival. Bone scan may be indicated if there is concern for disease recurrence (development of symptoms or lab abnormalities) or to follow-up a prior abnormal bone scan finding.

Percentage of Women who received Breast MRI for Surveillance (defined as CPT 77058, 77059; HCPCS C8903-8908)

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Cancer Society and the American Society of Breast Surgeons recommend against performing a breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for routine breast cancer surveillance in asymptomatic patients who have been treated with curative intent, citing their unproven effectiveness in improving survival. Breast MRI is currently recommended only for women at very high risk for developing another breast cancer, such as BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, history of chest wall radiation therapy and women with a 20% or greater lifetime risk of developing another breast cancer. Breast MRI may be considered in patients with very dense breasts or a strong family history of breast cancer. Breast MRI may also be indicated for follow-up of a prior abnormal breast MRI finding.

Percentage of Women who received Follow-Up Mammograms More Frequently than Annually for Patients Treated with Breast Conserving Surgery & Radiotherapy (defined as CPT 77051, 77052, 77055-77057, 77061-77063 HCPCS G0202, G0204, G0206, G0279)

The American Society for Radiation Oncology's Choosing Wisely® list recommends against performing routine follow-up mammograms more frequently than annually in asymptomatic patients treated with breast conserving surgery and radiotherapy, citing no clear advantage to shorter interval imaging.

Direct medical care costs for the initial diagnosis and evaluation, initial treatment as well as any neoadjuvant, adjuvant and surveillance care received during the first 24 months post-diagnosis will be calculated using Marketscan and Medicare claims data.

Inclusion Criteria: I. Health care providers: Health care providers (regardless of age, gender or race/ethnicity) in participating WCHQ practices who will provide breast cancer care to about 9,000 women who had an incident breast cancer surgery between 2014-2017. II. Patients: Medicare and Marketscan women who had an incident breast cancer surgery between 2014-2017. No exclusions will be made by age or race/ethnicity. The focus on women is dictated by the very low prevalence of breast cancer among men. Identification of incident breast cancer surgery in these datasets will be done using a validated algorithm developed by Nattinger et al. Exclusion Criteria: Male patients are excluded from this analysis due to the low prevalence of breast cancer among males.

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