Costs of Depression from Claims Data for Medicare Recipients in a Population-Based Follow-Up Study

• Activity Number: 188
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2014 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Health Policy Statistics Section
• Author(s): Seungyoung Hwang*+ and Pierre K. Alexandre and Kimberly B. Roth and Joseph J. Gallo and William W. Eaton
• Companies: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Keywords: depression ; medical costs ; Medicare ; claims analysis

Abstract

We provide information about the association between Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and medical costs in a twenty-three-year-old longitudinal cohort using data of the four waves of the Baltimore - Epidemiologic Catchment Area follow-up and Medicare claims (1999-2004). Generalized linear models specifying with a gamma distribution and log link function were used to examine the cost difference between Medicare recipients with MDD and those without. We found that Medicare recipients without MDD had mean six-year medical costs of US $40,670, compared to $87,445 for those with MDD in CMS claims data and $43,583 in Baltimore ECA data. Multivariable regressions found that six-year medical costs were 1.90 times (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.32 to 2.73) higher for recipients with MDD in CMS and 1.28 times (95% CI 0.83 to 1.96) higher for recipients with MDD in ECA compared to those without. Medicare recipients with a history of depression had higher medical costs than recipients with no history of depression. The findings provide information on the economic burden of depression, an important but often omitted dimension and perspective of the burden of mental illnesses.