Now how will we be paying for this?
In what can only be filed, depressingly, in the
not-that-surprising vault, a Yale University study published today revealed that more than 20 percent of Medicare patients diagnosed with melanoma
have some form of surgery delays.
The researchers reviewed data on more than 32,000 Medicare patients diagnosed with melanoma. They found that 22% of patients waited longer than 1.5 months for melanoma surgery, and 8% were delayed more than 3 months. Although no gold standard exists, a timeframe of less than six weeks between diagnosis and surgery has been recommended.
"Delay for melanoma surgery in this population is more common than we expected," said Jason Lott, M.D., who was first author of the study as postdoctoral fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at Yale School of Medicine.
This does not necessarily mean that poor patients are being given less energetic care.
Delays were most common for patients who were treated by providers who were not dermatologists -- such as primary care physicians or general surgeons. That particular finding may point to opportunities to increase coordination of care between providers who diagnose and treat melanoma patients, said the researchers.
This may just be an issue of money not buying
specialized services which could be resolved without a big increase in cost to the healthcare system.