PDB44 - health care resource utilization and costs among diabetes patients residing in long-term care facilities

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate health care resource utilization and costs among diabetespatients residing in long-term care facilities. METHODS: Patients diagnosed withdiabetes (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modificationdiagnosis codes 250.x0, 250.x2) were identified using the Long-Term Care MinimumData Set (MDS) linked to 5% Medicare data from 01JAN2009 through 31DEC2010. Theinitial diagnosis date was designated as the index date. A comparison cohort wascreated for patients without diabetes, using 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM)to control for age, region, gender and baseline Charlson Comorbidity Index score.The index date for the comparison cohort was randomly chosen to reduce selection bias. Patients in both cohorts were required to be age ?65 years, have at leasttwo consecutive quarterly assessments documented in MDS data 6 months priorto the index date and have continuous medical and pharmacy benefits for 1-yearpre- and post-index date. Health care resource utilization and costs were comparedbetween the diabetes and comparison cohorts. RESULTS: After applying PSM, 783patients were included in each cohort, and baseline characteristics were balanced.Diabetes patients had a higher percentage of inpatient (31.29% vs. 22.73%, p=0.0001),skilled nursing facility (SNF, 31.55% vs. 22.73%, p<0.001), durable medical equipment (27.46% vs. 16.48%, p<0.0001) and pharmacy visit claims (93.10% vs. 88.76%,p=0.0028) compared to those without diabetes. Patients in the diabetes cohort alsoincurred significantly higher inpatient ($5,801 vs. $3,071, p<0.0001), SNF ($5,532 vs.$3,244, p<0.0001), carrier claim ($3,118 vs. $2,437, p=0.0002) and pharmacy visit costs($5,040 vs. $4,275, p=0.0005) than those in the comparison cohort. CONCLUSIONS:Patients diagnosed with diabetes had significantly higher health care resource utilization and costs than those without diabetes.