Rachael Sorg

Effects of Care Management and Telehealth:: A Longitudinal Analysis Using Medicare Data

To evaluate mortality and healthcare utilization effects of an intervention that combined care management and telehealth, targeting individuals with congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or diabetes mellitus.

Healthcare costs and utilization for privately insured patients treated for non-infectious uveitis in the USA

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to describe comorbidities, healthcare costs, and resource utilization among patients with chronic non-infectious uveitis initiating corticosteroid, immunosuppressants, or biologics.In this retrospective cohort study, patients with a non-infectious uveitis diagnosis and continuous insurance coverage during a 6-month baseline were selected from a privately insured claims database with 80.7 million enrollees. Index dates were defined as the first prescription/administration of a corticosteroid, immunosuppressant, or biologic between 2003 and 2009. Comorbidities, healthcare costs, and utilization were analyzed in a per-member-per-month (PMPM) framework to account for varying between-patient treatment periods, defined as continuous medication use within the same class. Wilcoxon rank-sum and chi-square tests were used for comparisons of costs and categorical outcomes.ResultsPatients on corticosteroids (N = 4,568), immunosuppressants (N = 5,466), and biologics (N = 1,694) formed the study population. Baseline PMPM inpatient admission rates were 0.029 for patients on corticosteroids, 0.044 for patients on immunosuppressants, and 0.045 for patients on biologics (p < 0.001 immunosuppressants or biologics versus corticosteroids); during treatment, PMPM inpatient admissions increased to 0.044 and 0.048 for patients taking corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, respectively, but decreased to 0.024 for patients taking biologics (p < 0.001 versus corticosteroids and p = 0.003 versus immunosuppressants). Baseline average PMPM costs for patients taking corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and biologics were US

Cost-Effectiveness of Denosumab Compared With Zoledronic Acid in Patients With Breast Cancer and Bone Metastases

935, US

Healthcare resource use and costs of privately insured patients who switch, discontinue, or persist on anti-muscarinic therapy for overactive bladder

1,738, and US

Comparative efficacy and safety of daclatasvir/asunaprevir versus IFN-based regimens in genotype 1b hepatitis C virus infection.

1,439 (p < 0.001 between groups), while on-treatment PMPM costs excluding drug costs increased to US

Costs and Resource Utilization Associated With Anemia and Rash in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients Treated With Direct-Acting Antiviral Agents in the United States

1,129 for patients taking corticosteroids but lowered to US

Sa1258 Comparison of Real-World Outcomes of Adalimumab (ADA) and Infliximab (IFX) for Patients With Ulcerative Colitis (UC) in the United States

1,592 for patients taking immunosuppressants, and US

Re.: Cost-effectiveness of denosumab vs zoledronic acid for prevention of skeletal-related events in patients with solid tumors and bone metastases in the United States.

918 for patients taking biologics (p < 0.001 versus corticosteroids or immunosuppressants).ConclusionsThere is significant economic burden associated with existing treatments of uveitis. Corticosteroids may be overused as a treatment for uveitis.

Risk of Ocular Complications in Patients with Noninfectious Intermediate Uveitis, Posterior Uveitis, or Panuveitis

BACKGROUND Results from a phase III clinical trial showed that denosumab significantly reduced the risk of first on-study and subsequent skeletal-related events (SREs) compared with zoledronic acid. This study aims to assess the cost-effectiveness of denosumab vs. zoledronic acid in the prevention of SREs in patients with advanced breast cancer and bone metastases. MATERIALS AND METHODS A Markov model was developed with 4-week model cycles and a 1-year time horizon. The health states were defined by SRE status (no SRE, first on-study SRE, subsequent SRE, no SRE but history of SRE) and SRE type (pathologic fracture, radiation to the bone, surgery to the bone, spinal cord compression). Costs (in 2011 US dollars) included drug, SRE treatment, and adverse event (AE) costs and were assessed from a third-party payer perspective. The primary outcome was incremental total cost per SRE avoided; the secondary outcome was incremental total cost per pathologic fracture avoided. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were used to assess the robustness of the model. RESULTS During the 1-year treatment period, denosumab incurred

Development and validation of a claims-based prediction model for COPD severity

7522 higher costs (