Healthcare coordination and medical expenditures for Sickle Cell Disease
patients with different levels of health utilization risk
Abstract
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) has a complex array of symptoms and is
associated with high healthcare expenditures. A comprehensive care
program may help to reduce expenditures of children with SCD. This
research describes SCD comprehensive care program enrollees’ expenditure
patterns by level of hospitalization risk over a three-year period and
estimates whether coordination of care services reduced costs for those
with different risk levels. Medicaid claims data were collected for
program patients with SCD. Data from the one year prior to program
enrollment categorized patients as High, Medium, or Low risk for
incurring inpatient expenditures. We compared utilization risk groups on
inpatient expenditures by year after program enrollment. The trends in
expenditures are shown in the subgroup analyses (descriptively). 361
program enrollees ages 1 to 27y had SCD; 8.9% were categorized as High
risk of utilizing hospitalization services, 47.9% were at Medium risk,
and 43.2% were at Low risk. The High Utilization and Medium Utilization
Risk groups showed trends of expenditure reduction, but the trends may
be due to regression of extreme group costs toward the mean. The lack of
a statistically significant cost benefit might be due to small sample
size, low engagement in the program services, short duration of
intervention, and inability to distinguish the appropriateness of
healthcare utilization for SCD.