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Costs for knee osteoarthritis increased during 5-year study period
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From 2009 to 2014, costs related to knee osteoarthritis have increased for Medicare patients, according to findings presented at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Annual Meeting.
“As part of our commercialization efforts for our [osteoarthritis] OA program, we have been evaluating the financial data on the burden of this disease,” Erich Horsley, the chief business officer of Samumed, said in a press release. “OA is a chronic and debilitating disease that constitutes a significant and increasing cost factor for both payers and patients, particularly when considering the aging demographics of the United States population.”
Researchers assessed Medicare claims data from 2009 to 2014 for 534,004 patients with osteoarthritis. In 2009, each patient had an average of 1.2 inpatient stays. There were 7.7 outpatient visits, 9.9 primary care visits, 0.89 home care episodes and 0.16 skilled nursing facility (SNF) stays. In 2014, primary care visits grew to 11.3 and SNF stays tripled to 0.48; whereas, outpatient visits declined to 7.28 and home care utilization decreased to about zero.
For both years, 95% of OA hospitalizations were due to joint replacements and had an average length of stay of 3 days. In 2009, the average cost — which was inflated to 2014 value — for each episode of care was $52,949 for inpatients; $1,079 for outpatients; and $8,236 for SNF. These figures changed to $55,379 for inpatients, $1,403 for outpatients and $8,517 for SNF. For primary care, cost-per-visit decreased from $165 to $147.
References:
Su W, et al. Health Care resource use of Medicare beneficiaries with primary osteoarthritis of the knee. Presented at: the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Annual Meeting; May 20-24, 2017; Boston.
Disclosure: Su, Chen and Iacobucci are employees for IHS Markit. Bedenbaugh, Bair and Oruc are employees for Samumed.