Since March 1995, the Taiwan Department of Health has integrated 13 health insurance plans into a universal insurance program. This compulsory social insurance program covers approximately 99% of the residents of Taiwan and has contracts with 97% of medical providers.17 –19 (link) Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) has the unique characteristics of universal insurance coverage and a single-payer system with the government as a sole insurer. Patients have free access to care with any physician or hospital they choose. The insurance premium is calculated by the insurant's individual monthly income reported to the Bureau. The data for this study were collected from Taiwan's NHIRD for the years 20072011.
Our study cohort consisted of Taiwanese patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer from 2007 to 2011. The patients with CRC (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] codes colon cancer: 153x, rectal cancer: 154x) underwent both surgical resection (45.7x, 45.8, 45.9x, 48.4x, 48.5, 48.6x, 48.74) of colorectal cancer and chemotherapy (oxaliplatin, 5-flurouracil, capecitabine, ufur, or irinotecan) or radiotherapy (92.2x) for their disease during this period. Patients who had chemoradiation both 3 months before surgical resection (neoadjuvant chemoradiation) and 12 months after surgical resection (adjuvant chemoradiation) were included in our study for similar aggressiveness of adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatments. Those patients who received palliative stoma formation (code 46x) only without surgical resection procedures were excluded. A patient selection flow chart is shown in Figure1 .
Our study cohort consisted of Taiwanese patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer from 2007 to 2011. The patients with CRC (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] codes colon cancer: 153x, rectal cancer: 154x) underwent both surgical resection (45.7x, 45.8, 45.9x, 48.4x, 48.5, 48.6x, 48.74) of colorectal cancer and chemotherapy (oxaliplatin, 5-flurouracil, capecitabine, ufur, or irinotecan) or radiotherapy (92.2x) for their disease during this period. Patients who had chemoradiation both 3 months before surgical resection (neoadjuvant chemoradiation) and 12 months after surgical resection (adjuvant chemoradiation) were included in our study for similar aggressiveness of adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatments. Those patients who received palliative stoma formation (code 46x) only without surgical resection procedures were excluded. A patient selection flow chart is shown in Figure
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