[Social insurance costs of hospital treatment of stroke in Hungary, 2003-2005]

Abstract

Our aim was to assess the social insurance costs of hospital treatments for acute stroke in Hungary between 2003 and 2005. We studied how much burden stroke patients impose on the financer (National Health Insurance Fund Administration) in acute and chronic hospital admissions. We extracted the data of "new" stroke patients (ICD-10: 160-64 diagnosis) hospitalized in May 2003 from the database of the financer. We analyzed active and chronic hospital treatment costs of these patients in the period of 12 months before the stroke and in the following first and second 12 months. Data were collected by sex and age (age groups: 25-44, 45-64, over 65). We studied patients hospitalized in May 2003 with the ICD-10: 160-64 main diagnosis but not being treated with the same diagnosis in the previous 24 months. In the first 12 months of the active care the burden of the disease was (male vs. female) 65+: 254.6 vs. 205.8; 45-64: 341.4 vs. 280.5; 25-44: 370.1 vs. 306.1 thousand HUF per patient. In the second 12 months the costs were 50.6 vs. 36.2; 24.2 vs. 32.6; 27.6 vs. 24.8 thousand HUF respectively. In the first year following the episode the costs of the chronic hospital treatment were (age groups as above) 23.3 vs. 31.3; 28.9 vs. 22.2; 22.8 vs. 22.5 thousand HUF A year later the chronic hospital costs were 9.0 vs. 10.9; 6.7 vs. 12.2; 1.4 vs. 38.1 thousand HUF respectively. Average costs of stroke are higher in the case of males as are in the case of females, 364.8 vs. 303.0 thousand HUF in the first 24 months. The remarkable difference results from active hospital treatment costs (331.5 vs. 262.1 thousand HUF), while the discrepancy is smaller in the chronic hospital care (33.3 vs. 40.9 thousand HUF).