The treatment of breast cancer and therapy for recovery is covered under Medicare reimbursement, according to researchers from the United States.

As reported on UPI. com, Dr. Benjamin D. Smith of the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston the study looked at Medicare for 26,163 women who had been diagnosed with localized breast cancer and who had undergone surgery and radiation for treatment between the years 2001 and 2005.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, said that billing for this type of radiation was more than five times higher in areas where local Medicare carriers would cover it than in areas where Medicare would not take on the responsibility of the bill for their patients.

The researchers found that the average cost of radiation therapy if started in the first year of cancer diagnosis cost around $7,179, but the cost more than doubled to %14,230 when intensity-modulated radiation therapy was used.

Because of this, the authors of the study concluded that the data gathered “suggest that with respect to breast radiation therapy, much of the variation in cost can be directly attributed to inconsistent treatment definitions and reimbursement rates authorized by Medicare and its intermediaries”.