Healthcare Costs Associated with Patients Receiving Traditional Negative Pressure Wound Therapies in the Post-Acute Setting

The use of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) for acute and chronic wounds is widely accepted, and its use has been growing outside the hospital setting. The aim of this comparative study was to evaluate the total cost to treat and total wound-related costs for patients initiating durable NPWT in the outpatient setting.
Our evaluation of Optum’s de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart Database included patients with an initial NPWT claim between January 2016 and September 2018[i]. Patients were divided into two cohorts defined by brand of NPWT; NPWT-K* and NPWT-O**. The cohorts were propensity score matched based on age, gender, comorbidities, and payor type. Claims data were used to define wound type and wound-related costs. Costs were evaluated and compared for the two cohorts at 30 days, 3 months and 12 months after initial NPWT placement. Each cohort included 3,368 patients after matching. At 30 days post initial NPWT, wound-related costs were $8,583 and $11,334 for NPWT-K and NPWT-O respectively (p< 0.0001) and total cost to treat was $17,809 and $24,405 for NPWT-K and NPWT-O respectively (p< 0.0001). These significant differences were seen for all time periods evaluated, and across wound types.  There was no statistical difference in 30-day hospital admissions (NPWT-K 15.2% and NPWT-O 13.7%, p=.089) although 30-Day ER-visits were higher for NPWT-K vs NPWT-O (4.9% vs 3.3%, p=.0007).  There was a higher degree of switching from NPWT-O to NPWT-K at 30 days (NPWT-O 2.5% vs 0.4%, p< .0001) and 3 months (NPWT-O 3.7% vs NPWT-K 1%, p< .0001.
This comparative cost effectiveness analysis indicates a difference remains in wound related and total cost to treat for patients who receive durable NPWT in the outpatient setting.
 
*ACTIV.A.C.™ Therapy System, KCI USA, Inc., San Antonio, TX
**All non-KCI NPWT systems
[i] Optum’s de-identifed Clinformatics® Data Mart Database (2007-2020)
 

Trademarked Items (if applicable): *ACTIV.A.C.™ Therapy System, KCI USA, Inc., San Antonio, TX

References (if applicable): Optum’s de-identifed Clinformatics® Data Mart Database (2007-2020)