Health care costs associated with Australian tertiary inflammatory bowel disease care

Abstract

Introduction: We aimed to describe the total costs of illness for IBD patients and compare the costs of patients with active disease to those with inactive disease.

Materials and methods: Resource use for IBD management was itemized for attributable costs (AUD) among all IBD patients over a 12-month period at an Australian hospital.

Results: One hundred and eighty-three patients were included (87 ulcerative colitis (UC); 93 Crohn’s disease (CD); three IBD-unclassified). The median (IQR) annual overall cost was higher in the CD versus UC group ($15,648 versus $5017; p < .001). The difference in cost between CD and UC was influenced by the difference in outpatient costs for CD patients $9602 ($4311–$29,805) versus $4867 ($3220–$7249), p < .001). The cost of treating patients with active disease was $3461 ($1607–$11,771) and was higher in the CD versus the UC group ($6098 ($2168–$16,471) versus $1638 ($1401–$3767); p = .026) and was influenced by inpatient admissions. The cost of treating patients in remission was $2090 ($1552–$12,954) and was higher in the CD versus the UC group [$7977 ($1579–$14,304) versus $1848 ($1508–$6601); p = .236].

Conclusions: There is a discrepancy in costs of inpatient versus outpatient IBD management and treating active disease compared with disease in remission. Proactive care may help prevent disease reaching a severity whereby reactive management of active disease is required.

Keywords:

• Health care costs
• health economics
• inflammatory bowel disease

Acknowledgements

The Gutsy Group provided research support. Ferring has provided an unrestricted educational grant, but played no part in study design, analysis, or reporting. B. J. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and AVANT DiT scholarship. P. D. C is supported by a David Bickart Clinician Research award from the University of Melbourne and a Bushell Postdoctoral award from the Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA).

Disclosure statement

B. J. has received educational support from Shire and Takeda. P. D. C. has received educational support, consulted on advisory boards, and been a speaker at educational symposia sponsored by Shire, Ferring, Janssen, Takeda, AbbVie, and Baxter. This manuscript was not directly funded.

Additional information

Funding

The Gutsy Group provided research support. Ferring has provided an unrestricted educational grant, but played no part in study design, analysis, or reporting. B. J. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and AVANT DiT scholarship. P. D. C is supported by a David Bickart Clinician Research award from the University of Melbourne and a Bushell Postdoctoral award from the Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA).