Follicular Lymphoma Survival Rates Significantly Higher in Privately-Insured Patients

Privately-insured patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) have nearly 2-fold better survival outcomes compared with publicly-insured or non-insured patients, according to a new study. The findings suggest that improving access to care through insurance could potentially improve outcomes in this patient population.

The study, published in Blood, sought to examine the association between insurance status and overall survival (OS) in patients with the disease. Prior research has pointed to a link between low socioeconomic status and poor outcomes—likely due to decreased access to care among these patients. For this study, researchers looked deeper into the impact of insurance status on FL survival, which had not been previously studied.

To further explore this potential link, the researchers combed the National Cancer Database for information on patients aged at least 18 years with follicular lymphoma who were diagnosed between 2004 and 2014. The researchers examined a total of 43,648 patients in 2 groups: patients aged 18 to 64 years and patients aged 64 years and older to account for changes in insurance with Medicaid eligibility.

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