Objectives: Patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia often experience a variety of symptoms, including acute pancreatitis. Little is known about the health care cost burden among such patients. This study investigated the real-world health care utilization and costs of hypertriglyceridemia in a large commercially insured US population. MethOds: A retrospective observational claims study was conducted among adult patients identified from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database SM . Patients with TG> 500 mg/dL between 1/1/2007 and 4/30/2013 were placed into three mutually exclusive cohorts based on first available TG measurement (index date). Patients were required to have ≥ 12 months of eligibility pre-(baseline) and post-index date (follow-up). Baseline and follow-up annual health care resource utilization and costs were assessed descriptively using ICD-9-CM codes for identification of relevant dyslipidemia claims. Costs associated with an acute pancreatitis episode were estimated using GLM. Results: We identified N= 1,964 patients with TG≥ 1500 (Cohort A), N= 7,432 with 750≤ TG< 1500 (Cohort B), and N= 17,500 with 500< TG< 750 mg/dL (Cohort C). Across all cohorts, patients were young (mean age 46-48) and mostly males (75-80%). At baseline, health care utilization and costs were similar between Cohorts B and C, but higher in Cohort A (mean all-cause medical and pharmacy costs of $8,850/patient). At follow-up, the number of patients with dyslipidemia-related office and other outpatient visits, as well as pharmacy dispensing, approximately doubled in all three cohorts, as did related costs. Mean all-cause costs/patient in Cohort A at follow-up were $12,642, of which $3,730 were dyslipidemia-related. Presence of an acute pancreatitis episode was associated with a > 300% increase in total all-cause costs in Cohort A. cOnclusiOns: In this sample of commercially insured patients, results suggest that health care utilization and costs scale with the level of TG elevation with patients having more severe hypertriglyceridemia requiring more medical interaction and pharmacotherapy. Treating severe hypertriglyceridemia and preventing acute pancreatitis may result in substantial cost savings.
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