Digital Therapeutic Cost-Effective as Adjunct to Buprenorphine for Patients With OUD

The prescription digital therapeutic reSET-O was cost-effective when used in combination with buprenorphine administered in the outpatient setting, according to new findings.

A Markov model was created to analyze the cost-effectiveness of reSET-O as adjunctive therapy with outpatient buprenorphine, compared to outpatient buprenorphine alone.

Measured costs included hospitalizations, partial hospitalizations, intensive care unit visits, and emergency department visits. To measure effectiveness, authors studied abstinence, treatment retention rate, total number of life years, and total number of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).

Researchers assessed the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of both treatment regimens in 12-week cycles over the course of 156 weeks, “from the perspective of a United States third-party commercial payer.”

For adjunctive reSET-O vs buprenorphine alone, the incremental cost-effectiveness was:

• $32,135 per additional person abstinent;
• $19,797 per additional person retained;
• $37,962 per life year gained; and
• $21,598 per QALY gained.

Probabilistic sensitivity analyses showed adjunctive reSET-O had a 100% probability of being cost-effective for additional person retained and QALY gained, compared to 0% for buprenorphine alone, with a $50,000 willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold.

For additional person abstinent and life year gained, adjunctive reSET-O showed cost-effectiveness of 99.9% compared to 97.7% for buprenorphine alone ($50,000 WTP threshold).

Adjunctive reSET-O was also 100% more effective and less costly ($50,000 WTP threshold) across all outcomes when accounting for high medical costs.

“Digital therapeutics offer a new and potentially cost-effective treatment modality for patients with opioid use disorder,” researchers wrote. “Relative to [buprenorphine] alone, reSET-O as an adjunct to buprenorphine therapy for patients with OUD is a cost-effective option at a $50,000 WTP threshold.”

Reference:
Velez F, Huang D, Mody L, Hallock C. Cost-effectiveness of a prescription digital therapeutic for patients with opioid use disorder as adjunct to buprenorphine therapy. J Manag Care Spec Pharm. 2022;28(3a):S37.