Association of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion with the diagnosis and treatment of clinically localized melanoma: A National Cancer Database study.

BACKGROUND

The Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion is associated with earlier diagnosis and improved care among lower socioeconomic status populations with cancer, but its impact on melanoma is undefined.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the association of Medicaid expansion with stage of diagnosis and use of sentinel lymph node biopsy in nonelderly adult patients with newly diagnosed clinically localized melanoma.

METHODS

Quasi-experimental, difference-in-differences retrospective cohort analysis using data from the National Cancer Database from 2010 to 2017. Patients from expansion versus nonexpansion states and diagnosed before (2010-2013) versus after (2014-2017) expansion were identified.

RESULTS

Of 83,322 patients, 46.6% were female, and the median age was 55 years (interquartile range, 49-60). After risk adjustment, Medicaid expansion was associated with a decrease in the diagnosis of T1b stage or higher melanoma (odds ratio [OR], 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88-0.98; P = .011) and decrease in uninsured status (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.52-0.72; P < .001) but was not associated with a difference in sentinel lymph node biopsy performance when indicated (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.95-1.20; P = .29).

LIMITATIONS

Retrospective study using a national database.

CONCLUSION

In this study of patients with clinically localized melanoma, Medicaid expansion was associated with a decrease in the diagnosis of later T-stage tumors.