OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of treatment with oral naltrexone on healthcare costs in patients with alcohol-related disorders. METHODS Using data from the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database for 2000-2004, we identified a naltrexone group (with an alcohol-related diagnosis and at least one pharmacy claim for oral naltrexone) and two control groups. Alcohol controls had a...

OBJECTIVES To contribute to current discussions about budget impact modeling, two different approaches for the impact of a new pharmaceutical product were analyzed: firstly considering the impact on annual healthcare expenditures only, and secondly additional inclusion of lost insurance premiums due to possible early retirement in patients with chronic diseases. METHODS The dynamic model calc...

INTRODUCTION Today, the provision of healthcare should be efficient and equitable to achieve the health system's goals. The aim of this study was to survey equality in healthcare expenditures and its effects on income redistribution. METHODS This study was a descriptive-analysis, cross-sectional study that was conducted with data obtained from the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) during 2006 ...

BACKGROUND Previous research has shown that tobacco control funding in California has reduced per capita cigarette consumption and per capita healthcare expenditures. This paper refines our earlier model by estimating the effect of California tobacco control funding on current smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption per smoker and the effect of prevalence and consumption on per capita heal...

BACKGROUND Better cardiovascular health is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk. METHODS AND RESULTS We determined the association between cardiovascular health and healthcare utilization and expenditures in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. We included 6262 participants ≥65 years with Medicare fee-for-service coverage for the year after...

Japan’s total fertility rate is very low (1.29 in 2003), and Japanese life expectancy is among the highest (78.4 years for males and 85.3 years for females at birth in 2003) in developed countries. Consequently, the population is aging rapidly, which has had a heavy impact on welfare state reform in Japan. In European healthcare reforms, early reforms in the 1980s emphasized cost containment; t...

In the United States, healthcare expenditures have continued to rise at alarming rates despite numerous strategies to contain costs. One area of focus that is underappreciated is doctor-patient communication about expectations of treatment. Studies have shown that clinicians' misperceptions of assumptions about patients' expectations are an essential component to our nation's healthcare overuse...

BACKGROUND Monitoring the incidence and intensity of catastrophic health expenditure, as well as the impoverishing effects of out of pocket costs to access healthcare, is a key part of benchmarking Kenya's progress towards reducing the financial burden that households experience when accessing healthcare. METHODS The study relies on data from the nationally-representative Kenya Household Expe...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the long-term net economic impact of the California Tobacco Control Program. METHODS This study developed a series of dynamic models of smoking-caused mortality, morbidity, health status and healthcare expenditures. The models were used to evaluate the impact of the tobacco control programme. Outcomes of interest in the evaluation include net healthcare expenditures save...