[Analysing catastrophic illness patterns in a health promoting company in Colombia].
OBJECTIVE
Identifying trends in catastrophic illness patterns as well as determinant factors of variation due to pathology and type of mandatory contribution regime in people affiliated to SaludCoop (a health promoting company forming part of Colombian's health and social security system).


METHODS
Trends were analysed based on why the service was used and cost/income ratio obtained by per capita payment unit compared to actuarial reference studies.


RESULTS
Intensive care unit (ICU) attention for adults and cardiovascular surgery were the pathologies leading to greater health costs 1997-1999 in the mandatory employees' insurance contribution regime. Chemotherapy and neonatal intensive care led to the greatest costs in the mandatory subsidised health insurance regime.


CONCLUSIONS
The catastrophic illness patterns studied revealed the need for establishing attention models aimed at improving risk management, priority intervention in the field of prevention and epidemiological surveillance of high cost illnesses.
Nieto-Enciso
Luis Hernando
LH
Division de Salud Pública Secretaría de Salud de Bogotá. hernandonieto@yahoo.com
D002388:Catastrophic Illness / Q000191:economics*; D003105:Colombia; D017281:Cost of Illness; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data