ArticleFederal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS2025
Community Care Radiation Oncology Cost Calculations for a VA Medical Center.
Article in Federal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Veterans can now access specialized care normally delivered at large tertiary US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers (VAMCs). The costs are paid by their originating VAMC, but have not been comprehensively examined. Methods: This study analyzes radiation oncology community care consultations, authorizations, standard episodes of care (SEOCs), and radiation oncology-specific charges at the Richard L. Roudebush VAMC (RLRVAMC) to provide a comprehensive view of the financial effects of sending patients to community care. It also demonstrates obstacles in categorization and suggests improvements to current VA practices. Results: From October 1, 2021, to February 1, 2024, about $2.7 million was spent by RLRVAMC on community care radiation oncology services, with median SEOC charges of $5000. After accounting for inadvertently omitted radiation oncology costs and patients, total expenditures are closer to $2.9 million. The median cost of the consultation increased to $20,600 for patients who received community-based definitive radiation treatment. Conclusions: Current methods for calculating community-based radiation oncology costs underestimate total expenditures, exclude some patients who receive radiotherapy services, and severely understate the median cost of care for those undergoing definitive treatment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.