PMH21 - comparing the healthcare utilization and costs of early- and late-stage alzheimer's disease patients residing in long-term care facilities

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To compare healthcare utilization and costs between early- andlate-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients residing in long-term care (LTC)facilities. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with AD (International Classification ofDiseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] code 331.0) were identifiedusing U.S. Medicare claims linked with the Long-Term Care Minimum Data Set (MDS)from 01JULY2008 through 31DEC2010. The first diagnosis date was designated asthe index date. Patients were required to be age ?65 years, with continuous medicaland pharmacy benefits for 6 months pre- and post-index date, and reside in an LTCfacility. Patients were categorized as early- or late-stage. Late-stage AD was definedby a cognitive performance scale score ?5 (range 0-6) and Activities of Daily Livingshort-form activities score ?10 points. Patients with and without AD were matchedbased on demographic and clinical characteristics, and 1:1 propensity score matching was used to compare follow-up all-cause and AD-related healthcare costs andutilizations. RESULTS: Before matching, late-stage AD patients (n=5,323) were lesslikely to be white (83.0% vs. 86.4%), male (16.4% vs. 21.7%) and have comorbid conditions measured by the Charlson Comorbidity Index score (3.55 vs. 4.83, p<0.001) thanearly-stage AD patients (n=20,023). After 1:1 matching, 3,804 patients were matchedfrom each cohort and baseline characteristics were balanced. Fewer late-stage ADpatients had skilled nursing facility admissions (25.3% vs. 29.8%, p<0.0001), but morehad hospice admissions (17.8% vs. 7.3%, p<0.0001) and pharmacy visits (85.8% vs.81.9%, p<0.0001) than early-stage AD patients. There were no significant differencesin total all-cause healthcare costs; however, late-stage AD patients incurred significantly higher disease-related total ($14,739 vs. $13,673, p=0.0242) and hospice costs($4,157 vs. $1,553, p<0.0001) compared to early-stage AD patients. CONCLUSIONS:Patients with late-stage AD incurred higher disease-related costs than those withearly-stage AD; however, there were no significant differences in total all-causehealthcare costs.