PMS37 - health care cost burden and demographic distribution of patients diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in the us medicare population

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the health care cost burden and demographic distributionof patients diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis (PSA) in the Medicare fee-for-service(FFS) Dataset. METHODS: A retrospective database analysis was performed usingthe 100% Medicare FFS Datasets from October 1, 2008 through December 31, 2012.Patients diagnosed with PSA were identified using International Classification ofDiseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis code 696.0, andthe index date was the date of the initial diagnosis. All patients were required to havecontinuous medical and pharmacy benefits 1-year pre- and post-index date. Healthcare costs and utilization during the baseline (1 year before the diagnosis date) andfollow-up (1 year after the diagnosis date) periods were calculated. RESULTS: Usingthe aforementioned criteria, 11,324 PSA patients were identified. The average ageat diagnosis was 74 years, 66.10% of patients were women and almost 92.36% werewhite. The majority of patients resided in the South U.S. region (39.01%). Diabetes(33.84%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (29.04%) and cerebrovascular disease(17.36%) were the main comorbidities observed during the baseline period. Duringthe follow-up period, 62.96% of patients had inpatient admissions, 47.29% had emergency room visits, 91.67% had outpatient office visits, 91.67% had outpatient visitsand 58.03% had pharmacy visits, costing, on average, $23,960, $237, $5,015, $5,252and $7,335, respectively. The average total cost of PSA patients was $36,548. The fivemost commonly prescribed medications for PSA were methotrexate sodium (4.54%),prednisone (3.37%), levothyroxine sodium (2.59%), hydrocodone bit/acetaminophen(2.43%) and simvastatin (2.11%). CONCLUSIONS: PSA patient demographic and healthcare cost information was obtained and the most commonly prescribed PSA medications were identified.