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Dollar amounts of medical expenses after osteoporotic fracture reported
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ASBMR 30th Annual Meeting
Osteoporosis fractures in women with Medicare aged 65 years or older resulted in excess medical expenses of $15,522 per person during three years after the fracture, according to findings presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 30th Annual Meeting in Montreal.
“The medical needs resulting from an osteoporotic fracture extend well beyond simply caring for the broken bone,” Diana Brixner, RPh, PhD, said in a press release.
Brixner is the executive director of the Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City.
She and her colleagues supported a retrospective cohort study of 31,758 women aged 65 years and older with a new Medicare claim for a closed nontraumatic fracture.
Seventy-six percent of the excess cost was incurred in the first six months after the fracture. Inpatient hospital costs accounted for 55% and long-term care accounted for 28% of the cost. An excess prescription cost of $590 per patient accounted for 4% of the total cost.
Although at risk for a subsequent fracture, 64% of patients were not treated for osteoporosis during the three years after their fractures, according to the press release. During the three-year follow-up period, 14% of patients experienced another fracture, resulting in an additional $28,021 per patient, according to the abstract.
Patients experienced a subsequent fracture approximately 13 months after the first fracture on average. Nonvertebral fractures accounted for 85% of fragility fractures and 87% of the total additional medical expenses.
For more information:
- Brixner D. #Sa422. Presented at: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 30th Annual Meeting, Sept. 12-16, 2008; Montreal.