Hospitalization Costs of Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Patients
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2020-09-29
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Introduction: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease that can lead to significant morbidity. As the CF population increases and treatment regimens escalate in complexity, CF care costs are expected to rise and could put tremendous strain on health care systems. Our aim was to examine the hospitalization costs of Canadian CF patients. Methods: We performed an analysis of annual CF hospital costs for the 2014 fiscal year using a public payer perspective. Secondary objectives were to examine differences in annual hospital costs for Canadian CF patients (1) by patient characteristics, (2) between provinces, and (3) over time (from 2010 to 2014). Record level data were obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information databases. CF patients were defined based on at least one hospital admission with an ICD-10 code of E84. Costs were estimated using a case-mix aggregate costing strategy. Results: In 2014, 953 of 2,702 (35%) Canadians with CF had 1,705 hospitalizations resulting in a total cost of $32.1 million. Mean hospital cost per patient and mean cost per hospitalization were $34,982 and $19,782, respectively. There were no differences in mean cost per hospitalization by age or sex. Mean cost per hospitalization was highest among those admitted for pneumothorax ($22,685), followed by CF pulmonary exacerbation ($21,130) and distal intestinal obstruction syndrome ($18,816). The mean cost per hospitalization was highest for Alberta ($25,229) and lowest for NB ($10,734). Between 2010 and 2014, the total cost of all hospitalizations for CF patients increased by 17% ($27.4 to $32.1 million). Conclusion: Canadian CF hospitalizations are costly; these costs vary by type of admitting diagnosis and are increasing over time. These national estimates will inform health care planning as well as future cost effectiveness analyses for CF interventions.
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Skolnik, K. (2020). Hospitalization Costs of Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Patients (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.