Purpose:
To assess the direct medical expenditures associated with Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and Diabetic Macular Edema with Visual Impairment (DME/VI) from a U.S. private payer perspective, compared with diabetes (DM)-only controls.
Methods:
A large U.S. administrative claims database from private health insurers was used to calculate annual medical expenditures for DME and DME/VI patients compared to DM-only patients from 2002 to 2007. Patients were identified by ICD-9 codes using algorithms from the literature. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were used to determine total annual medical expenditures by group.
Results:
The database includes over 450,000 individuals and 1.3 million person-years of data. The population studied was 53% male, with mean age of 63 years; 16.5% had type I DM and 83.5% had type II or unspecified DM. From 2002 to 2007, DM-only controls averaged between $11,915 and $17,387 in annual direct medical expenditures while patients with DME incurred between $20,166 and $29,959 in annual inpatient, outpatient, and pharmaceutical costs. Patients with DME/VI incurred even higher annual costs, ranging between $27,574 and $42,692. Extrapolated to the prevalence of DME in the U.S., the 2007 direct cost burden of illness of DME in the U.S. is estimated to be $5.35 billion.
Conclusions:
DME patients incurred consistently higher medical costs than DM-only controls. Patients with DME/VI incurred even higher costs, quantifying for the first time the added burden of VI in DME patients. These findings underscore the financial significance of DME and its associated visual impairment to the patient and society.
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • edema