The impact of nebulized levalbuterol on health care payments for elderly asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients in Medicaid plans.

Objective: To compare health expenditures among elderly Medicaid patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who used either nebulized levalbuterol (levosalbutamol) or racemic albuterol (salbutamol) for bronchodilation.Methods: A retrospective, quasi-experimental study was c...

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Publicado en:Disease Management & Health Outcomes Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 41 - 56
Autores principales: Ozminkowski RJ, Wang S, Long SR
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Springer Nature Feb2007
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: The impact of nebulized levalbuterol on health care payments for elderly asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients in Medicaid plans.
      aug:
        au:
          Ozminkowski RJ
          Wang S
          Long SR
        affil: Institute for Health and Productivity Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
      sug:
        subj:
          Administration, Inhalation
          Albuterol Administration and Dosage
          Albuterol Economics
          Asthma Drug Therapy
          Asthma Economics
          Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive Drug Therapy
          Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive Economics
          Medicaid
          Aged
          Aged, 80 and Over
          Albuterol Analogs and Derivatives
          Asthma Classification
          Chi Square Test
          Comparative Studies
          Confidence Intervals
          Descriptive Statistics
          Female
          Funding Source
          Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive Classification
          Male
          P-Value
          Quasi-Experimental Studies
          Regression
          Repeated Measures
          Retrospective Design
          Sensitivity and Specificity
          T-Tests
          Human
          Aged: 65+ years
          Aged, 80 & over
          Female
          Male
      ab: Objective: To compare health expenditures among elderly Medicaid patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who used either nebulized levalbuterol (levosalbutamol) or racemic albuterol (salbutamol) for bronchodilation.Methods: A retrospective, quasi-experimental study was conducted. Trends over time in total medical expenditures and disease-specific expenditures were compared for levalbuterol versus racemic albuterol patients. Differences in these trends were estimated by conducting generalized estimating equation regression analyses of difference-in-difference regression models. Prior to comparing levalbuterol and racemic albuterol users, these models controlled for their differences in demographics, reason for Medicaid eligibility, location, health-plan type, co-morbidities, severity of asthma or COPD, the use of other medications, and the receipt of influenza or pneumonia inoculations. Several sensitivity analyses were also conducted to estimate the reliability of the results, as related to inclusion criteria (e.g. days of therapy), regression methods, or to conduct separate analyses for asthma and COPD patients.Results: When asthma and COPD patients were pooled, every analysis of total healthcare expenditures showed large, statistically significant savings associated with levalbuterol use. These savings ranged from $US1167 to $US1792 per patient over a 6-month period, depending on inclusion criteria or statistical methods. When the analyses were separated by disease, a focus on total health expenditures still favored levalbuterol and the savings associated with levalbuterol use were about twice as high per patient for COPD patients ($US2490) as they were for asthma patients ($US1122). A focus on disease-related expenditures showed a statistically significant loss of approximately $US853 per patient for levalbuterol users who had asthma (p = 0.0031) but a statistically significant saving of approximately $US967 for COPD patients who used levalbuterol (p = 0.0031).Conclusions: A focus on total medical expenditures showed that the added costs of using levalbuterol were more than offset by reductions in other types of healthcare expenditures. Savings were higher for COPD patients than for asthma patients. A focus on disease-related expenditures showed savings for COPD patients who used levalbuterol, but results for asthma patients favored racemic albuterol.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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