Date: March 13, 2021
Dr. Peter E. Newburger, M.D. Editor-in-Chief, Pediatric Blood & Cancer
Dear Dr. Newburger,
We respectfully submit for your consideration our research article entitled “The Economic Burden of Illness in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Patients from a Commercial and Medicaid Insurance Perspective.” This study is the first to our knowledge to analyze healthcare resource utilization and costs in patients with pediatric ALL by Commercial and Medicaid insurance.
Through our analysis of 730 patients:
We observed no significant difference in the number of inpatient admissions and a borderline difference in emergency room visits for Commercial and Medicaid patients, but Commercial patients experienced significantly more outpatient visits and significantly less pharmacy claims compared to Medicaid patients.
Total healthcare costs were more than double for Commercial patients compared to Medicaid patients, reflecting a significant difference in total reimbursed amount for patients with Commercial and Medicaid.
The results presented in this manuscript have not been submitted elsewhere nor previously published except in abstract form (accepted, but not presented due to COVID-19 at American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) Annual Meeting, May 2020). All listed authors (Elisabetta Malangone-Monaco DrPH, Lenat Joffe MD, Zhezhen Jin PhD, Dawn Hershman MD and Prakash Satwani MD) have contributed to the manuscript in significant ways, all have reviewed the final version, and all agree upon the manuscript content. None of the authors have any affiliations that they consider to be relevant with any organization that, to their knowledge, has a direct interest, particularly a financial interest, in the subject matter discussed.
We suggest the following three potential reviewers: Nandita Khera (khera.nandita@mayo.edu),
Hemalatha, Rangarajan (Hemalatha.Rangarajan@nationwidechildrens.org) and Alex Seif (seifa@email.chop.edu).
We hope that you find this manuscript suitable for review and we thank you for the opportunity to have our work evaluated for publication in Pediatric Blood & Cancer.
Sincerely,
Elisabetta Malangone-Monaco on behalf of the authors