Cost of chronic hepatitis B infection in the United States.

Lee TA, Veenstra DL, Iloeje UH, Sullivan SD. Cost of chronic hepatitis B infection in the United States. Journal of clinical gastroenterology. 2004 Nov 1; 38(10 Suppl):S144-7.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

GOALS: To estimate the direct medical costs associated with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection in the United States. BACKGROUND: Approximately 240,000 new cases of hepatitis B infection occur annually in the United States. There are estimated to be 1.25 million sufferers of CHB in the United States. However, the economic impact of these infections has not been well studied. STUDY: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis using administrative healthcare claims data to estimate costs for six health states associated with CHB infection. The six states were as follows: 1) CHB, 2) compensated cirrhosis, 3) decompensated cirrhosis, 4) liver transplantation, 5) transplant care > 12 months following transplant, and 6) hepatocellular carcinoma. Patients in each health state were identified using diagnostic and procedure codes, and their utilization was tracked during their time in that health state. To estimate costs, we used reimbursed amounts and adjusted to year US 2000 dollars. RESULTS: Average annual costs for patients in each health state were as follows: CHB, US 761 dollars; compensated cirrhosis, US 227 dollars; decompensated cirrhosis, US 11,459 dollars; liver transplant, US 86,552 dollars; transplant care > 12 months following transplant, US 12,560 dollars; and hepatocellular carcinoma, US 7,533 dollars. Medications contributed the largest proportion of costs in CHB and compensated cirrhosis disease states, while hospitalizations were the largest cost component in the other health states. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis provides estimates of the annual costs of complications of hepatitis B infection in the United States. The most progressive health states were associated with significantly higher costs.