Nutzung von Arzneimittelverordnungsdaten der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung für die Krankheitskostenrechnung

The cost of illness accounts of the Federal Statistical Office are based on key figures from the annual health expenditure accounts and determine the costs of selected diseases using various data sources. A major challenge in this context is the allocation of drug costs to specific groups of diseases. Many drugs that are prescribed have been approved for the treatment of various conditions and the relevant diagnosis is not stated on the prescription form. The article describes the cost of illness accounts and a new procedure developed by the AOK Research Institute (WIdO) for allocating the costs of pharmaceuticals to various diseases. The authors present the results for the reporting year of 2018 and discuss possible limitations.