Healthcare utilization and direct medical costs of Huntington's disease among Medicaid beneficiaries in the United States.

AIMS: To provide more recent estimates of healthcare utilization and costs in Huntington's disease (HD) in the Medicaid population.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective analysis used administrative claims data for HD beneficiaries (≥1 HD claim; ICD-9-CM 333.4) from Medicaid Analytic eXtract data files from 01/01/2010-12/31/2014. The date of the first HD claim during the identification period (01/01/2011-12/31/13) was assigned as the index date. If a beneficiary had multiple HD claims during the identification period, one was randomly chosen as the index date. Beneficiaries were required to be continuously enrolled in fee-for-service plans during the one-year pre-index and post-index periods. Medicaid beneficiaries without HD were drawn from a 100% random sample and matched (3:1) to those with HD. Beneficiaries were classified by disease stage (early/middle/late). All-cause and HD-related (any utilization related to HD diagnosis or symptoms associated with HD) healthcare utilization and costs were reported.

RESULTS: A total of 1,785 beneficiaries without HD were matched to 595 beneficiaries with HD (139 early-, 78 middle-, and 378 late-stage). The mean (SD) annual total costs were higher for beneficiaries with HD than beneficiaries without HD ($73,087 [$75,140] vs. $26,834 [$47,659], p < 0.001) and driven by inpatient costs ($45,190 [$48,185] vs. $13,808 [$39,596], p < 0.001). Total healthcare costs were highest among beneficiaries with late-stage HD (mean [SD] cost: $22,797 [$31,683] for early-stage HD vs. $55,294 [$129,290] for middle-stage HD vs. $95,251 [$60,197] for late-stage HD; p < 0.001).

LIMITATIONS: Administrative claims are intended for billing purposes and subject to coding errors. This study did not address functional status, which may provide further insight to late-stage and end-of-life burden of HD, and indirect costs.

CONCLUSIONS: Medicaid beneficiaries with HD have higher acute healthcare utilization and costs compared to beneficiaries without HD, which tend to increase with disease progression, indicating that HD beneficiaries at later disease stages have greater burden.