PCV58 - HEALTH INSURANCE TREATMENT COST OF SECONDARY HYPERTENSION IN HUNGARY: A NATIONWIDE COST OF ILLNESS STUDY

Abstract

Secondary hypertension is a common disease resulting in significant health insurance cost and societal burden in many developed countries.The aim of our study was to calculate the annual health insurance treatment cost of secondary hypertension in Hungary. The data derive from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), the only health care financing agency in Hungary. We analyzed the health insurance treatment cost and the number of patients for the year 2017. The following cost categories were included into the study: out-patient care, laboratory diagnostics, medical imaging, acute in-patient care, chronic in-patient care and drugs. Secondary hypertension was identified with the following codes of the International Classification of Diseases 10threvision: I15. The number of patient underwent outpatient care was 5,740 (55.1 % women and 44.9 % men) with a mean age of 57.94 years (women: 60.48 years; men: 54.83 years). Number of patients admitted to in-patient hospital care was 2.929 (59.2 % women and 40.8 % men) with a higher mean age of 61.98 years (women: 64.55 years; men:58.11 years). For the treatment of patients with secondary hypertension in 2017 the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration spent 780.266 million Hungarian Forint (HUF) which equals 2.523 million Euros (EUR). Major cost drivers were acute inpatient care (72.8 % of total health insurance costs), pharmaceuticals (17.7 %) and chronic inpatient care (5.5 %). Secondary hypertension represents a significant burden for the health insurance system. The occurrence of the disease is more common in women both in outpatient and inpatient care. There is a significant difference (outpatient: 5.64 years; inpatient: 6.54 years) in the onset of the disease between women and men. Reimbursement of inpatient care is the major cost driver for secondary hypertension in Hungary.