Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Introduction: No evidence exists on the impact of sociodemographic characteristics on costs of care for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM). Therefore, we evaluated 5-year cumulative costs by age, sex, and race/ethnicity.
Methods: Retrospective cohort study of adults diagnosed with oHCM (January 2013 to December 2021) using Optum claims and electronic medical record data. Patients with ≥2 claims for HCM (ICD-9 and-10) at least 30 days apart (index date = earliest oHCM claim) with ≥1 additional oHCM claim or septal reduction therapy, 6-months pre-index and 5-year post-index continuous enrollment were included. HCM-related cumulative costs (2022 CPI adjusted) were reported for medical (ambulatory [AB]: office [OV] visits, outpatient [OP] visits); emergency room [ER] visits; inpatient admissions (IP); and pharmacy (Rx).
Results: Among 5,129 patients with oHCM, 52% were female (mean age 63.9 ± 14.3 years; 77.6% non-Hispanic White; 40% Medicare). Compared to females (Table), male patients had greater costs including total ($71,581 vs $63,710, p= 0.014), medical ($70,395 vs $62,455, p= 0.013), ambulatory ($16,024 vs $10,776, p<0.001), OV ($1,906 vs $1,573, p<0.001), and OP ($14,118 vs $9,202, p<0.001). Compared with White patients, Black patients had significantly greater IP costs ($54,572 vs $42,686, p= 0.01), Hispanic patients had greater ER costs ($1,724 vs $791, p<0.001), and Asian patients had greater OV costs ($2,094 vs $1,800, p<0.001). Patients aged 18-39 years had greater costs across all categories (p<0.001; IP=NS), except Rx. Patients aged 40-54 years had the highest Rx costs ($1,557, p<0.001), followed by 18-39, 55-64, 65-74, 75+ years ($1,528; $1,329; $1,197; $867), respectively.
Conclusions: For oHCM patients, being male and age 18-39 years was associated with increased HCM-related healthcare costs. Differences in cost across race/ethnicity exist, including greater IP and ER costs for Black and Hispanic patients, respectively. Future research is required to understand the source of these differences among oHCM patients.