Alice Kate G. Cummings

Burden of Diabetic Foot Ulcers for Medicare and Private Insurers

OBJECTIVE To estimate the annual, per-patient incremental burden of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS DFU patients and non-DFU patients with diabetes (controls) were selected using two deidentified databases: ages 65+ years from a 5% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries (Standard Analytical Files, January 2007–December 2010) and ages 18–64 years from a privately insured population (OptumInsight, January 2007–September 2011). Demographics, comorbidities, resource use, and costs from the payer perspective incurred during the 12 months prior to a DFU episode were identified. DFU patients were matched to controls with similar pre-DFU characteristics using a propensity score methodology. Per-patient incremental clinical outcomes (e.g., amputation and medical resource utilization) and health care costs (2012 U.S. dollars) during the 12-month follow-up period were measured among the matched cohorts. RESULTS Data for 27,878 matched pairs of Medicare and 4,536 matched pairs of privately insured patients were analyzed. During the 12-month follow-up period, DFU patients had more days hospitalized (+138.2% Medicare, +173.5% private), days requiring home health care (+85.4% Medicare, +230.0% private), emergency department visits (+40.6% Medicare, +109.0% private), and outpatient/physician office visits (+35.1% Medicare, +42.5% private) than matched controls. Among matched patients, 3.8% of Medicare and 5.0% of privately insured DFU patients received lower limb amputations. Increased utilization resulted in DFU patients having

Burden of venous leg ulcers in the United States

11,710 in incremental annual health care costs for Medicare, and

Implications of early treatment among Medicaid patients with Alzheimer's disease

16,883 for private insurance, compared with matched controls. Privately insured matched DFU patients incurred excess work-loss costs of

The Economic Burden of Diagnosed Opioid Abuse Among Commercially Insured Individuals

3,259. CONCLUSIONS These findings document that DFU imposes substantial burden on public and private payers, ranging from

Basal insulin persistence, associated factors, and outcomes after treatment initiation among people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the US

9–13 billion in addition to the costs associated with diabetes itself.

Medical costs of Alzheimer's disease misdiagnosis among US Medicare beneficiaries.

Abstract Objective: To estimate the annual incremental per-patient and overall payer burden (2012USD) of venous leg ulcers (VLU) in the US. Methods: Beneficiaries with and without VLU were identified using two de-identified insurance claims databases: aged 65+ from a 5% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries (2007–2010: n ∼ 2.3 million); and aged 18–64 from a privately-insured population (2007–2011: n ∼ 8.4 million). The index date was selected as the date of a VLU claim with no other VLU diagnoses in the preceding 12 months for the VLU cohort and as the date of a random medical claim for the non-VLU patients. These groups were matched using propensity scores to account for differences in demographics, comorbidities, resource utilization, and costs in the 12 month pre-index period. Medical resource use and costs incurred during the 12 month follow-up period were calculated for both payers. Drug costs and indirect work-loss due to disability and medically-related absenteeism were estimated for the privately-insured sample only. Annual VLU incidence rates were also estimated for both payers. Results: Data for 58,672 matched VLU/non-VLU pairs of Medicare and 22,476 matched pairs of privately-insured patients were analyzed. Relative to matched non-VLU patients, VLU patients used more medical resources and incurred annual incremental medical costs of

Economic outcomes among Medicare patients receiving bioengineered cellular technologies for treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.

6391 in Medicare (

The economic impact of implementing a multiple inflammatory biomarker-based approach to identify, treat, and reduce cardiovascular risk

18,986 vs

Prevalence, comorbidity burden and treatment of Alzheimer's disease among the elderly in the United States

12,595), and

Estimating the Costs of Opioid Abuse and Dependence from an Employer Perspective: a Retrospective Analysis Using Administrative Claims Data

7030 (