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Post-Acute Care Healthcare Charges after Hospitalization Due to Influenza or COVID-19 Infection
16 Pages Posted: 5 Dec 2022
More...Abstract
Background: SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause a persistent syndrome of multi-organ dysfunction with symptoms that may be debilitating. Individuals seeking care for this syndrome are likely to generate significant healthcare utilization and spending. It is unknown if healthcare costs after SARS-CoV-2 infection differ from those after influenza infection.
Methods: We used an all-payer administrative dataset comprised of coding and billing data from 446 hospitals in the United States that use a financial analytics platform by Strata Decision Technology. The de-identified analytic sample included patients aged 18 years or older who were admitted to a hospital between July 2018 and May 2021 with an ICD-10 code for COVID-19 or influenza. Analyses were stratified by age and need for ventilation during acute hospitalization. Linear regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between infection type (COVID-19 or influenza) and cumulative charges between one and five months after hospitalization. Covariates included medical comorbidities, health system classification, and pre-hospitalization charges, among others.
Findings: Of 110,381 patients included in our analysis, 94,927 (86·0%) were hospitalized for COVID-19 and 15,454 (14·0%) were hospitalized for influenza. Patients hospitalized for COVID-19 accrued a median of $5248 (interquartile range (IQR) $25693) in post-acute healthcare charges, whereas patients hospitalized for influenza accrued a median of $8463 (IQR $41063). After adjusting for covariates, linear model results demonstrated no significant differences in post-acute charges between patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and patients hospitalized with influenza.
Interpretation: Our findings suggest that individual healthcare charges after acute COVID-19 infection are similar to influenza infection.
Funding Information:
Joseph Bailey: Joseph Bailey was supported, in part, NIH/NHLBI 5T32HL076139 and NIH/NHLBI UL1TR001422.
Jacqueline Marie Kruser was supported, in part, by NIH/NHLBI grant K23HL146890.
Ravi Kalhan was supported, in part, by the Solovy Award for Advancement in COPD from the Respiratory Health Association.
Blair Hu is employed by Strata Decision Technology.
Lisa Wolfe has no funding to report.
Shaina Alexandria was supported by the Solovy Award for Advancement in COPD from the Respiratory Health Association.
Leah Welty was supported by the Solovy Award for Advancement in COPD from the Respiratory Health Association.
Declaration of Interests: The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethics Approval Statement: The institutional review board at Northwestern University reviewed and approved this study. A waiver of informed consent was granted due to inability to obtain consent from patients in the de-identified database.
Keywords: health service utilization, healthcare spending, COVID-19, Influenza
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