Differences in Healthcare Resource Use and Cost by Pharmacotherapy Among Patients with Symptomatic Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Real-World Analysis of Claims Data

Background

For symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM), limited evidence exists on healthcare resource utilization (HRU) and cost for patients with symptomatic oHCM by treatment categories. We evaluated whether HRU and costs vary by initial treatment in symptomatic oHCM.

Methods

This is a retrospective study of medical and pharmacy claims from 2016 to 2021 to identify (per International Classification of Disease Tenth Revision diagnosis codes) adult patients in the USA with symptomatic oHCM. Patients included in the study cohort were required to be treatment naïve (≥ 12 months’ activity before first treatment) and symptomatic (fatigue, chest pain, syncope, dyspnea, heart failure, or palpitations within 3 months of index date). Patients were grouped by first index treatment [beta blocker (BB), calcium channel blockers (CCB), disopyramide, combination therapy], and HRU and costs [per person per year (PPPY), in USD] by initial treatment were reported.

Results

Among 7334 patients with symptomatic oHCM, initial treatment included BB (65.8%), CCB (21.1%), disopyramide (1.2%), or BB + CCB (11.9%). Overall, 87.2% were prescribed monotherapy. Outpatient visits were the main driver of all-cause HRU (mean 11.5 PPPY), and varied by initial treatment (BB: 11.0, CCB: 10.5, disopyramide: 7.2, combination therapy: 12.1). All-cause urgent care visits were more frequent than inpatient visits (means: 5.4 and 0.83 PPPY, respectively). All-cause incurred costs were $46,628 PPPY overall and varied by treatment (BB: $47,029, CCB: $42,124, disopyramide: $27,007, combination therapy: $54,024).

Conclusions

In this large, US-based cohort of patients with symptomatic oHCM, initial therapy was most commonly BB and CCB monotherapy. Costs and HRU were high for most patients, but greater for those treated initially with combination therapy.