Tzy-Chyi Yu

Economic Burden of COPD in the Presence of Comorbidities

BACKGROUND: The morbidity and mortality associated with COPD exacts a considerable economic burden. Comorbidities in COPD are associated with poor health outcomes and increased costs. Our objective was to assess the impact of comorbidities on COPD-associated costs in a large administrative claims dataset. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study of data from the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters and the MarketScan Medicare Supplemental Databases from January 1, 2009, to September 30, 2012. Resource consumption was measured from the index date (date of first occurrence of non-rule-out COPD diagnosis) to 360 days after the index date. Resource use (all-cause and disease-specific [ie, COPD- or asthma-related] ED visits, hospitalizations, office visits, other outpatient visits, and total length of hospital stay) and health-care costs (all-cause and disease-specific costs for ED visits, hospitalizations, office visits, and other outpatient visits and medical, prescription, and total health-care costs) were assessed. Generalized linear models were used to evaluate the impact of comorbidities on total health-care costs, adjusting for age, sex, geographic location, baseline health-care use, employment status, and index COPD medication. RESULTS: Among 183,681 patients with COPD, the most common comorbidities were cardiovascular disease (34.8%), diabetes (22.8%), asthma (14.7%), and anemia (14.2%). Most patients (52.8%) had one or two comorbidities of interest. The average all-cause total health-care costs from the index date to 360 days after the index date were highest for patients with chronic kidney disease (

Assessing the importance of predictors in unplanned hospital readmissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

41,288) and anemia (

Impact of Lung Function on Exacerbations, Health Care Utilization, and Costs Among Patients with COPD

38,870). The impact on total health-care costs was greatest for anemia (

Health Status of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease by Symptom Level

10,762 more, on average, than a patient with COPD without anemia). CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis demonstrated that high resource use and costs were associated with COPD and multiple comorbidities.

Economic Burden of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease by Presence of Comorbidities

Purpose The all-cause readmission rate within 30 days of index admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was approximately 21% in the United States in 2008. This study aimed to examine patient and clinical characteristics predicting 30-day unplanned readmissions for an initial COPD hospitalization and to determine those predictors’ importance. Patients and methods A retrospective study was conducted in patients with COPD-related hospitalizations using commercial claims data from 2010 to 2012. The primary outcome was all-cause unplanned readmission, with secondary outcomes being COPD as primary diagnosis and COPD as any diagnosis unplanned readmissions. Factors predicting unplanned readmissions encompassed demographic, pharmacy, and medical variables identified at baseline and during the index hospitalization. Dominance analysis was conducted to rank the predictors in terms of importance, defined as the contribution to change in model fit of a predictor by itself and in combination with other predictors. Results After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18,282 patients with index COPD-related admissions were identified. Among them, the rates of unplanned readmissions with COPD as primary diagnosis, COPD as any diagnosis, and all-cause were 2.6%, 5.6%, and 7.3%, respectively. For each outcome, the readmission group was slightly older, had a greater COPD severity score, and required a longer length of stay. Moreover, the readmission group had larger proportions of patients with comorbidities, dyspnea/shortness of breath, intensive care unit stay, or ventilator use, compared to the non-readmission group. Dominance analysis revealed that the three most important predictors – heart failure/heart disease, anemia, and COPD severity score – accounted for 56% of the predicted variance in all-cause unplanned readmissions. Conclusion Overall, COPD severity score and heart failure/heart disease emerged as important factors in predicting 30-day unplanned readmissions across all three outcomes. Results from dominance analysis suggest looking beyond COPD-specific complications and focusing on comorbid conditions highly associated with COPD in order to lower all-cause unplanned readmissions.

Impact of Omalizumab On All-Cause and Asthma-Related Health Care Resource Utilisation in Patients With Moderate or Severe Persistent Asthma.

Objective To evaluate the impact of lung function, measured as forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) % predicted, on health care resource utilization and costs among patients with COPD in a real-world US managed-care population. Methods This observational retrospective cohort study utilized administrative claim data augmented with medical record data. The study population consisted of patients with one or more medical claims for pre- and postbronchodilator spirometry during the intake period (July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013). The index date was the date of the earliest medical claim for pre- and postbronchodilator spirometry. Spirometry results were abstracted from patients’ medical records. Patients were divided into two groups (low FEV1% predicted [,50%] and high FEV1% predicted [≥50%]) based on the 2014 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease report. Health care resource utilization and costs were based on the prevalence and number of discrete encounters during the 12-month postindex follow-up period. Costs were adjusted to 2014 US dollars. Results A total of 754 patients were included (n=297 low FEV1% predicted group, n=457 high FEV1% predicted group). COPD exacerbations were more prevalent in the low FEV1% predicted group compared with the high group during the 12-month pre- (52.5% vs 39.6%) and postindex periods (49.8% vs 36.8%). Mean (standard deviation) follow-up all-cause and COPD-related costs were

OUTCOMES-BASED ARRANGEMENTS IN VALUE-BASED CARE: AN ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

27,380 (

Comparison of COPD patients with high and low symptoms from a real-world US survey

38,199) and

Impact of Omalizumab on Poor Asthma Control Events and Medication Utilisation in Patients With Moderate or Severe Persistent Asthma

15,873 (

Empirical investigation of techniques for handling missing cost-to-charge ratio (CCR) in nationwide inpatient sample (NIS)

29,609) for patients in the low FEV1% predicted group, and