title: Interventional differences among Huntington's disease patients by disease progression in commercial and medicaid populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that spans distinct disease stages over 15-20 years. Various interventions are available which may allow patients to live outside of a nursing home for a longer time. However, little is known about use of these interventions by disease stage and by insurance type.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We compared use of interventions among early, middle and late stages of HD in commercial (C) and Medicaid (M) health insurance populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  HD patients (ICD-9-CM 333.4) were identified from Thomson Reuters' MarketScan C and M database (2002-2009) and hierarchically grouped into disease stages based upon the presence of defining clinical markers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1,272 HD patients (752/520 C/M) were identified. While stage distribution was nearly uniform in the C database - 34.0/35.5/34.0% (early/middle/late stage) - in the M population the majority were late stage (74.0%). Overall mean age was similar between C and M populations. Among late-stage patients, more M patients resided in a nursing home (M:73.8% v. C:40.6%) and received hospice care (M:18.4% v. C:11.3%). Physical therapy (PT) and home assistance were the most frequent interventions used by middle-stage patients, however more C patients received PT (C:64.0% v. M:37.1%) while more M patients received home assistance (M:75.3% v. C:53.2%). Among late-stage patients, PT was also higher in the C population (56.3% v. 48.3%). More M patients had assistive devices at home in both middle (M:25.8% v. C:9.7%) and late stages (M:35.6% v.C:23.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Apparent interventional differences emerged which varied by disease stage and insurance type.
authors.affiliation: MedStar Georgetown University Hospital & Georgetown University Medical Center - Huntington Disease Care, Education & Research Center, Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Karen E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: IMS Health, Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Divino
authors.affiliation: IMS Health, Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Mitch
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: DeKoven
authors.affiliation: University of Iowa - Department of Psychiatry, Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Langbehn
authors.affiliation: CHDI Management/CHDI Foundation, Village Boulevard, Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Warner
authors.affiliation: CHDI Management/CHDI Foundation, Village Boulevard, Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Giuliano
authors.affiliation: IMS Health, Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Won Chan
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016208:Databases, Factual; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Huntington's disease; databases; factual; health services/utilization*; insurance coverage; medicaid; retrospective studies