Nationwide epidemiological and health insurance disease burden of rheumatoid arthritis in Hungary

Introduction: Utilisation of services related to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis poses a great burden for health-care systems. Objecive: Our aim was to determine the annual epidemiological disease burden and the health insurance treatment cost of rheumatoid arthritis in Hungary. Data and methods: Data were derived from the financial database of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA) of Hungary, for the year 2018. The data analysed included annual patient numbers and prevalence per 100 000 population and annual health insurance treatment costs calculated for age groups and sex according to all health insurance treatment categories. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis were identified as main diagnosis with the following code of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision: M0690. Results: We found a significant patient turnover in pharmaceutical reimbursement: 7015 men, 23 696 women, in total 30 711 patients. Based on patient numbers in pharmaceuticals, prevalence for 100 000 population among men was 150.2 patients, among women 464.0, in total 314.1 patients. In 2018, NHIFA spent 1.64 billion HUF (6.07 million USD, 5.14 million EUR) on the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. 19.3% of the costs was spent on the treatment of male, 80.7% on female patients. Pharmaceuticals (42.8% of the total expenditures), outpatient care (21.9%) and acute inpatient care (12.4%) were the main cost drivers. Average annual health insurance treatment cost per patient was 53 375 HUF (198 USD/167 EUR). Conclusion: Pharmaceutical reimbursement was the major cost driver. The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis was by 3.1 higher in women compared to men.