The economics of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in a US managed-care setting: A retrospective, claims-based analysis

AbstractObjective: To assess 12-month healthcare resource utilization and costs associated with upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding events.Methods: Patients hospitalized with a UGI bleeding event were identified in US national health-plan claims data (1999–2003) and propensity matched to control patients without UGI bleeding in the same health plan. Matching criteria included age, gender, index date, Charlson Comorbidity Index score, geographic region, and prior medical utilization.Results: A total of 9,033 UGI-bleed patients and 579,018 control patients met the inclusion criteria, yielding 4,651 matched pairs. After matching, differences between the UGI bleed and general population cohorts remained for office visits, ER visits, and ER costs during the 6-month baseline period prior to the index date. During the 12 months following the index date, both UGI-related healthcare utilization and total healthcare, medical, and pharmacy costs incurred by the UGI-bleed cohort were significantly greater (p< 0.000...