Economic burden of cardiovascular events and fractures among patients with end-stage renal disease

Objective: To quantify direct medical costs of fractures and cardiovascular diseases among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Methods: Medicare claims data from year 2001 of the United States Renal Data System were used to quantify direct medical costs of acute episodic events (acute myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, heart valve repair, heart valve replacement, fractures) and chronic conditions (arrhythmia, peripheral vascular disease (PVD), heart valve disease (HVD), congestive heart failure (CHF), coronary heart disease, and non-acute stroke). Costs of hospitalized episodes of arrhythmia, PVD, CHF, and angina were also quantified. For acute events, costs were quantified using an episode-of-care approach. For chronic conditions, annualized costs were reported. Only costs specific to the events or conditions of interest were included and reported, in 2006 US dollars. Drug and dialysis-related costs were excluded. Diagnosis and procedure codes were used to identify these events and conditions. Results: Among acute events analyzed as clinical episodes, PVD ($358 million) was associated with the greatest economic burden, followed by CHF, arrhythmia, angina, acute MI, heart valve replacement, hip fracture, acute stroke, heart valve repair, vertebral fracture, and pelvic fracture ($8.6 million). The cost per episode ranged from approximately $12 000 to 104 000. Among chronic conditions, CHF ($681 million) contributed the greatest economic burden; HVD ($100 million) contributed the least. The costs per patient-year ranged from $23 000 to 45 000 among chronic conditions. The costing methodology utilized could contribute to an underestimate of the economic impact of each condition; therefore these results are considered conservative. Conclusion: The economic burden of these selected conditions was substantial to health services payers who finance ESRD patient care. Episodic costs were high for most acute events.