title: Use of insurance claims data to assess outpatient antimicrobial therapy for gram-positive infections.
abstract: With the increasing frequency of antibiotic-resistant gram-positive infections in the United States, many patients are being treated outside the hospital setting. The majority of studies on the cost of outpatient antimicrobial therapy involve retrospective medical record review or prospective data collection. These methods tend to be expensive and time consuming, and often fail to produce a sufficiently large sample size. Analysis of insurance claims data offers a convenient approach for studying the costs associated with outpatient therapy for gram-positive infections. To demonstrate this approach, a study of the cost of intravenous vancomycin home care therapy was conducted using claims data from a large insurance company.
authors.affiliation: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. ycarmeli@caregroup.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Yehuda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Carmeli
authors.forename: Essy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mozaffari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D018718:Home Infusion Therapy / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007344:Insurance Claim Reporting / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States; D014640:Vancomycin / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014640:Vancomycin