Health Care Utilization and Costs Associated with Endometriosis Among Women with Medicaid Insurance.

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a painful chronic inflammatory disease caused by endometrial tissue implanting and growing outside the uterus, resulting in pelvic pain symptoms and subfertility. Treatment imposes a substantial economic burden on the patient and health care system. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate direct health care utilization and costs among women newly diagnosed with endometriosis compared with age-matched controls in a U.S. Medicaid population. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used deidentified health care claims from the 2007-2015 MarketScan Multi-State Medicaid Database. Women (aged 18-49 years) newly diagnosed with endometriosis (ICD-9-CM 617.xx) during January 2008 through September 2014 were identified (date of first diagnosis = index date). Age-matched women without endometriosis (controls) were selected from the database and assigned index dates matching the distribution for endometriosis patients. Direct health care resource utilization (HCRU) and costs (medical and pharmacy) over the 12-month post-index period (2015 U.S. dollars) were computed by service category (hospitalization, emergency room visits, outpatient services, and prescriptions) and compared between study cohorts using the chi-square test for proportions and t-test for continuous variables. RESULTS: The final sample included 15,615 endometriosis patients and 86,829 matched controls. HCRU during the 12-month post-index follow-up period was significantly higher for endometriosis cases compared with controls in all measured categories. Hospital admissions occurred among 33.1% of cases and 7.2% of controls, and 65.8% of endometriosis patients were admitted for endometriosis-related surgery. Emergency room visits occurred in 71.5% of cases, and 42.2% of controls. Mean (SD) office visits were 10.4 (8.5) for endometriosis patients and 5.1 (6.9) for controls. Endometriosis patients had significantly more prescription claims than controls, 45.9 (42.0) versus 25.1 (39.1). Mean total direct health care costs were $13,670 ($29,843) for cases versus $5,779 ($23,614) for controls. All differences between cases and controls were significant at P < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS: Health care costs and resource utilization in all measured categories were higher among endometriosis cases than controls. The economic burden of endometriosis among patients with Medicaid insurance is substantial, underscoring the unmet medical need for earlier diagnosis and cost-effective treatments. DISCLOSURES: This study was funded by AbbVie and conducted by Truven Health Analytics, an IBM Company. AbbVie participated in developing the study design, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing and revisions, and approval for publication. Soliman and Vora are employees of AbbVie and may own AbbVie stock/stock options. Surrey has served in a consulting role on research to AbbVie and is on the speaker bureau for Ferring Laboratories. Bonafede and Nelson are employees of Truven Health Analytics, an IBM Company, which received compensation from AbbVie for the overall conduct of the study and preparation of the manuscript. Agarwal has served in a consulting role on research to AbbVie. Preliminary results of this study were previously presented in a podium session at the 2017 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Scientific Congress and Expo; October 28-November 1, 2017; San Antonio, TX.