Abstract 11358: Total Cost of Care in Heart Failure Patients Receiving Parenteral Iron Therapy for Iron Deficiency Anemia: A Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Iron deficiency (ID) is a common comorbidity in heart failure (HF) patients. This study compared healthcare costs between treatment with ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) and low dose IV iron (LDI) in HF patients with iron deficiency anemia (IDA). Methods: Medical and pharmacy claims from IQVIA PharMetrics ® Plus data were analyzed. Adult patients who received FCM or LDI (i.e iron sucrose, iron dextran, sodium ferric gluconate complex in sucrose) from 2017 to 2019, who had HF and IDA medical claims and were continuously eligible 6 months before (baseline) and 12 months after first (index) IV iron infusion were included. Patients with chronic kidney disease who required dialysis were excluded. Eligible FCM patients were required to receive 2 FCM doses within 21 days of index date. Healthcare resource use and costs for pre- and post-index periods were summarized descriptively. Post-index monthly inpatient, outpatient (excluding IV iron), and total costs for FCM and LDI were compared using generalized linear model with gamma log-link adjusting for pre-index monthly cost, age, gender, year of index treatment and Charlson Comorbidity Index. Results: Data from 3,153 FCM patients and 3,971 LDI patients were analyzed. Unadjusted mean number of outpatient visits increased numerically in the LDI group and unchanged for FCM, whereas ER visits and inpatient admissions decreased numerically for both treatment groups in the post-index period compared to baseline. After adjusting for covariates, post-index monthly inpatient costs [adjusted cost ratio (ACR)= 0.70, p <0.001], outpatient costs (ACR=0.74, p <0.001) and total costs (including IV iron) (ACR = 0.81, p <0.001) were significantly lower for FCM than LDI. Conclusion: Higher acquisition cost of FCM was offset by lower inpatient and outpatient costs in HF patients with IDA receiving FCM than LDI during the 12 months after IV iron treatment, resulting in significantly lower total healthcare costs for FCM compared to LDI.