Introduction: Scant data are available on the 30-day financial burden associated with incident complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) in a cohort of predominately elderly patients. This study sought to examine total and cUTI-related 30-day Medicare spending (MS), a proxy for healthcare costs, among Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries who resided in the community with newly diagnosed cUTIs.
Methods: A retrospective multicenter cohort study of adult beneficiaries in the Medicare FFS database with a cUTI between 2017 and 2018 was performed. Patients were included if they were enrolled in Medicare FFS and Medicare Part D from 2016 to 2019, had a cUTI first diagnosis in 2017-2018, no evidence of any UTI diagnoses in 2016, and residence in the community between 2016 and 2018.
Results: During the study period, 723,324 cases occurred in Medicare beneficiaries who met the study criteria. Overall and cUTI-related 30-day MS were $7.6 and $4.5 billion, respectively. The average overall and cUTI-related 30-day MS per beneficiary were $10,527 and $6181, respectively. The major driver of cUTI-related 30-day MS was acute care hospitalizations ($3.2 billion) and the average overall and cUTI-related 30-day MS per hospitalizations were $16,431 and $15,438, respectively.
Conclusion: Overall 30-day MS for Medicare FSS patients who resided in the community with incident cUTIs was substantial, with cUTI-related MS accounting for 59%. As the major driver of cUTI-related 30-day MS was acute care hospitalizations, healthcare systems should develop well-defined criteria for hospital admissions that aim to avert hospitalizations in clinically stable patients and expedite the transition of patients to the outpatient setting to complete their care.
Keywords: Medicare; burden of illness; complicated urinary tract infections; costs; outcomes.