Health Care Utilization and Economic Burdens of Hemochromatosis in the United States: A Population-Based Claims Study.

backgroundLittle is known about the health care burden of hemochromatosis in the United States, despite its increased morbidity and mortality due to associated advanced liver diseases.

objectiveTo evaluate the health care utilization and economic burdens of hemochromatosis in the United States using real-world claims data.

methodsWe performed a case-control analysis of adult participants in the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Claims database from 2010 to 2015. 37,092 hemochromatosis cases were matched 1:1 by demographics and comorbidities to hemochromatosis-free controls with chronic liver disease using propensity scores. Total and service-specific health care parameters were quantified for the 12 months following versus the 12 months before the first date of hemochromatosis diagnosis and over the 12 months following a randomly selected date for controls. Incremental differences in health care burdens between cases and controls were examined using Wilcoxon signed rank tests and McNemar tests for continuous and dichotomous measures, respectively. Adjusted multivariable regression analyses using generalized linear models were used to compare the health care burdens for cases with controls.

resultsIn comparison with the year before, the 12 months following first hemochromatosis diagnoses had a higher total number of claims per patient (34.37 vs. 29.99;

conclusionsHemochromatosis in the United States is associated with significant health care utilization and economic burdens driven by outpatient visits, pharmaceutical claims, and a high number of comorbidities DISCLOSURES: No outside funding supported this study. The authors have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose. An abstract containing some of the results from this study was accepted for the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Meeting; November 9-13, 2018; San Francisco, CA.