Patients with type 2 diabetes and comorbidities such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) have higher health care resource utilization (HCRU) and costs, according to a recent study in the Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy (2020;26[12]:1506-1516. doi:10.18553/jmcp.2020.26.12.1506)
“[CKD] is one of the most common complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus and results in considerable economic burden,” wrote Kerstin Folkerts, MS, Bayer AG, Wuppertal, Germany, and colleagues.
“Current studies describing cost and [HCRU] in [type 2 diabetes] patients with CKD in real-world data are few. Even more scarce is evidence that takes into account disease severity and other comorbidities,” they continued.
This study aimed to estimate annual HCRU and costs of type 2 diabetes patients with newly recognized CKD and identify patients from a US claims database using laboratory test results.
Total hospital-related costs and the number of outpatient, inpatient, and emergency room visits within the first rear after CKD diagnosis were estimated. Analyses were separated by comorbidity.
A total of 106,369 patients were identified and had a high prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities. Total costs per person per year in the first year after CKD diagnosis were $24,029. Total annual costs were $41,951 and $31,127 in patients that had CKD plus heart failure or anemia, respectively.
Within each stage of CKD, the costs increased, largely because of inpatient costs. Stratification of results showed that patients with type 2 diabetes and advanced CKD had a 7-fold higher rate of hospitalizations compared with those with an early disease stage.
“Administrative claims data linked to laboratory results provide an opportunity to identify CKD patients using the gold standard criteria from clinical practice, minimizing potential misclassification of patients,” wrote Ms Folkerts and colleagues.
“Better monitoring, earlier CKD diagnosis, and interventions that are effective in halting or slowing the progression of CKD, as well as at managing comorbid conditions, could be effective means to reduce the economic burden of CKD in [type 2 diabetes],” they concluded.—Lisa Kuhns
