Effects of introducing a new reimbursement scheme on pharmaceutical treatment for osteoporosis after hip fracture.

Introduction: Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) programs are beneficial for reducing the frequency of subsequent fractures and mortality in post-hip fracture patients. The aim of this study was to investigate recent changes in the rate of pharmaceutical treatment for osteoporosis in post-hip fracture surgery patients in the absence of FLS programs compared to the previous 10 and 20 years, and whether introduction of a new reimbursement scheme in hip fracture care, launched in 2022 by the Japanese government, improved the pharmaceutical treatment rate after surgical intervention.

Materials and methods: Study 1 included 1490 post-hip fracture patients in seven hospitals without an FLS program. Study 2 included 396 osteoporosis patients who were covered by the new reimbursement scheme at five of the seven hospitals. Treatment-related variables and the number of patients who received the different pharmaceutical treatments at 0, 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge from the hospital were examined.

Results: Two hundred and thirty-two of 1474 patients received anti-osteoporotic medication at hospital discharge, which was not a significant improvement in the rate of pharmaceutical treatment in comparison with that in our previous studies over 20 years. On the other hand, introduction of the new reimbursement scheme at hospitals significantly improved the rate of pharmaceutical treatment, with 263 of the 391 patients receiving anti-osteoporotic medication at discharge, as well as a significant improvement.

Conclusion: We demonstrated a significant improvement in the pharmaceutical treatment rate for osteoporosis in post-hip fracture surgery patients after introduction of the new reimbursement scheme launched by the Japanese government.