PCN62 - assessing the economic burden of us medicare patients diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the health care resource utilization and economic burdenof non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) in the U.S. Medicare population. METHODS:NHL patients were identified (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision,Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] diagnosis codes 200.xx and 202.xx) using nationalU.S. Medicare claims from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2011. The first diagnosis date was designated as the index date for the NHL cohort. Control patients of thesame age, region, gender and index year were identified and matched to case patientsbased on baseline Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) scores, and were assigned a randomly chosen index date to minimize selection bias. Patients were required to havecontinuous medical and pharmacy benefits 1 year pre- and post-index date. Studyoutcomes, including health care costs and utilizations, were compared between thedisease and comparison cohorts using 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM). RESULTS:A total of 20,254 patients were included in the NHL and comparison cohorts. After1:1 PSM, 4,705 patients were matched from each cohort and baseline characteristicswere balanced. Patients diagnosed with NHL were more likely to utilize health careresources including Medicare carrier (99.0% vs. 70.5%), Durable Medical Equipment(DME, 28.1% vs. 17.7%), Home Health Agency (HHA, 11.4% vs. 4.8%), outpatient visits(80.2% vs. 41.0%), inpatient stays (25.7% vs. 7.4%) and Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF,4.8% vs. 1.7%) and hospice admissions (0.9% vs. 0.3%). Patients diagnosed with NHLalso incurred higher Medicare carrier ($10,603 vs. $1,522), DME ($264 vs. $120), HHA($531 vs. $270), outpatient ($30,013 vs. $4,268), inpatient ($5,762 vs. $1,167), SNF ($875vs. $307), hospice ($197 vs. $67), pharmacy ($1,050 vs. $785) and total costs ($49,296vs. $8,507; p<0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The economic burden and health care resourceutilizations were significantly higher for patients diagnosed with NHL compared topatients without NHL.