ABSTRACT
Purpose: To assess the economic burden of non-infectious inflammatory eyedisease (NIIED) in a commercially-insured population in the United States
Methods: Adult patients with a NIIED diagnosis between 2006 and 2015 were selected from a de-identified, privately insured claims database and were matched 1:1 to a non-NIIED control. Ophthalmologic complications, direct healthcare resource use and costs, and indirect work loss (from the payer perspective) were calculated for a 12-month period and compared across the 2 cohorts.
Results: Among the 14 876 matched pairs, NIIED patients were significantly more likely than controls to experience ocular complications, including glaucoma and cataracts (p < 0.001). NIIED patients had significantly higher healthcare resource utilization and costs compared with matched controls (relative difference 40%, p < 0.001). NIIED patients missed 12.2 days of work ($2925 annual work-loss costs), 46% more than non-NIIED patients (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: NIIED imposes a significant clinical and economic burden, suggesting an unmet need for expanded access to alternative treatment options.
Conflict of interest
TAA has served as a clinical consultant for this study. WWN, AFL, LBP, and GC are employees of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, which provided research funding to Analysis Group, Inc. (employer of JBR, AGW, MJ, JR). All authors made substantial contributions to all of the following: conception and design of the study, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting of the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content. All authors approved the final version of the submitted manuscript.