Economic cost benefit analysis of rehabilitation in patients with lumbar intervertebral disc damage with radiculopathy

One of health care priorities in recent years is the process of rehabilitation. In this connection different pro- grams are developed, which support this process for patients with wide range of diseases. The Program for prophylaxis and rehabilitation of NSSI (National Social Security Institute) was introduced in Bulgaria in the year 2001. Material and method: The present study analyzes the health effect of the rehabilitation, conducted within the NSSI Program for prophylaxis and rehabilitation for patients with lumbar intervertebral disc damage with radiculopathy (ICD 51.1). Health economic evaluation was performed by economic cost benefit analysis. The study includes 100 patients, which attended in three following years (2007, 2008 and 2009) Spe- cialized hospital for rehabilitation - National complex PLC branch Banite. Their health condition was evalu- ated using the functional index of Steinbrocker before and after undergoing the rehabilitation. Results and discussion: A tendency for significant improvement of the patients` health condition was reported for the studied three years. The average number of patients with improvement was increased from 42% in 2007 to 51 % in 2008 and reached 60% in 2009. The performed economic analysis shows objectively the connection be- tween rehabilitation benefit for the patient and costs.