title: Costs attributable to osteoarthritis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate charges attributable to osteoarthritis (OA) in a managed care organization.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal study based on insurance claims incurred and filed between 1991 and 1993 in a national managed care organization. Patients with claims for OA were randomly sampled to yield 20,000 study subjects. Charges per person-year were determined for these patients and compared to those of comparison subjects matched for age, sex, and insurance plan without claims for OA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Total charges per patient-year adjusted to 1993 dollars for patients with OA <65 and > or =65 years of age were $5,294 and $5,704, respectively, while charges for controls were $2,467 and $3,741, respectively. Thus, charges due to OA were $2,827 and $1,963, accounting for 5% of total plan charges.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with symptomatic OA incur charges for medical care at about twice the rate of plan enrollees without claims for OA and account for a substantial proportion of total charges in a managed care plan.
authors.affiliation: West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Division of General Internal Medicine, California, USA.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: MacLean
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Paulus
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Brook
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Shekelle
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000191:economics; D008875:Middle Aged; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000191:economics*