title: Health-care costs of inner-city patients with asthma.
abstract: We estimated the health-care costs accrued by inner-city asthma patients over 1 year and identified patient characteristics associated with high cost patterns. The direct cost to the health-care provider of 1205 patients with an active diagnosis of asthma was $2.5 million, of which $888,000 (35.5%) was for asthma management. The average cost of an outpatient visit was $188, but was $3812 for a hospital admission. Outpatient visits for asthma comprised the largest volume of usage (96.2%) and the largest cost (55.4%). Although 104 hospital admissions of 84 patients (7%) comprised only 3.8% of the total encounters for asthma, they comprised 44.6% of asthma costs. Strategies emphasizing preventive care resulting in 20% greater outpatient costs would pay for themselves if they reduced inpatient admissions by 10%.
authors.affiliation: Regenstrief Institute for Health Care, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202, USA. stroupe_k@research.hines.med.va.gov
authors.forename: K T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Stroupe
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gaskins
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Murray
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001249:Asthma / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000191:economics; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D010045:Outpatients; D011204:Poverty Areas