title: The economic burden of incident venous thromboembolism in the United States: A review of estimated attributable healthcare costs.
abstract: Venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, is an important cause of preventable mortality and morbidity. In this study, we summarize estimates of per-patient and aggregate medical costs or expenditures attributable to incident VTE in the United States. Per-patient estimates of incremental costs can be calculated as the difference in costs between patients with and without an event after controlling for differences in underlying health status. We identified estimates of the incremental per-patient costs of acute VTEs and VTE-related complications, including recurrent VTE, post-thrombotic syndrome, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, and anticoagulation-related adverse drug events. Based on the studies identified, treatment of an acute VTE on average appears to be associated with incremental direct medical costs of $12,000 to $15,000 (2014 US dollars) among first-year survivors, controlling for risk factors. Subsequent complications are conservatively estimated to increase cumulative costs to $18,000-23,000 per incident case. Annual incident VTE events conservatively cost the US healthcare system $7-10 billion each year for 375,000 to 425,000 newly diagnosed, medically treated incident VTE cases. Future studies should track long-term costs for cohorts of people with incident VTE, control for comorbid conditions that have been shown to be associated with VTE, and estimate incremental medical costs for people with VTE who do not survive. The costs associated with treating VTE can be used to assess the potential economic benefit and cost-savings from prevention efforts, although costs will vary among different patient groups.
authors.affiliation: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA. Electronic address: sgrosse@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Scott D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Grosse
authors.affiliation: Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System, University of Utah Department of Internal Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Kwame A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Nyarko
authors.affiliation: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
authors.forename: Gary E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Raskob
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017046:Cost Savings / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017281:Cost of Illness; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D018803:Models, Economic; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D014481:United States; D054556:Venous Thromboembolism / Q000191:economics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*