Dementia-Related Psychosis Presents Significant Cost Burden

Despite its low prevalence, dementia-related psychosis among Medicare beneficiaries imposes a significant direct cost burden, suggests a study published in CNS Spectrums. 

“Especially given the aging population in the United States, dementia-related psychosis could become an increasing public health concern,” researchers wrote. “There is a significant need for education and awareness about dementia-related psychosis cost burden.” 

To estimate the annual direct cost burden of dementia-related psychosis from a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services perspective, researchers conducted a five state-transition Markov analysis, which allowed for patients to transition between three at-home health-states (mild dementia plus psychosis, moderate dementia plus psychosis, and severe dementia plus psychosis), one long-term care/nursing home stay, or death. 

The base-case scenario had an estimated 2.2 million patients with dementia-related psychosis enter the model: 10% at home with mild dementia plus psychosis, 60% at home with moderate dementia plus psychosis, 10% at home with severe dementia plus psychosis, and 10% in long-term care/nursing home stay. 

Annual Medicare dementia-related psychosis direct costs totaled an estimated $119.98 billion, according to the analysis. Per-patient per-year costs were an estimated $54,000. 

“In this analysis, per-patient per-year cost of dementia-related psychosis prevalence was estimated to be slightly higher than incident per-patient per-year dementia-related psychosis costs,” researchers wrote. “These differences may be attributed to the number of patients at higher severity levels and the time spent in a severe health state as well as cost of in long-term care/nursing home stays.” 

—Jolynn Tumolo 

Reference:

Sangha K, Rashid N, Abler V, Rajagopalan K. Economic Burden of Dementia Related Psychosis Among Medicare Beneficiaries: A State-Transition Markov Analysis of Total Annual Direct Costs. CNS Spectr. 2021;26(2):161. doi:10.1017/S109285292000259X