LAS VEGAS—Inpatient cost savings may offset the costs of patient adherence to cinacalcet therapy, a study shows.
Analysis of data from 4,936 dialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHTP) showed that mean inpatient costs over 12 months were $20,979 for non-adherers to cinacalcet treatment, $14,869 for low adherers, and $9,604 for high adherers. Mean cinacalcet costs were $1,427, $3,244, and $5,266, respectively, according to data presented at the National Kidney Foundation’s Spring Clinical Meetings.
Compared with non-adherence, low adherence and high adherence were associated with $4,126 and $8,916 reduction in inpatient costs, in adjusted analyses. Cardiovascular-related hospitalizations accounted for 41% of inpatient costs.
Continue Reading
The study included patients with at least one claim for cinacalcet who survived 12 or more months after the first cinacalcet prescription claim and six or more months of pre-index data.
The investigators, led by Andrew Lee, PhD, Manager of the Global Health Economic Group at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, Calif., defined non-adherers as those who had a gap of 180 days or more in refilling a cinacalcet prescription, lower adherers as patients who had less than a 180-day refill gap and a medication possession ratio (MPR) of less than 0.8, and high adherers as subjects with a refill gap of less than 180 days and an MPR of 0.8 or higher.
“These results suggest a potential cost-offset of inpatient savings associated with improved adherence that may reduce the economic burden of sHPT despite higher medication costs,” the authors concluded.
