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. 2018 Dec;2(4):433-442.
doi: 10.1007/s41669-017-0061-0.

The Healthcare Cost Burden of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Alberta, Canada

Dat T Tran  1   2 , Arto Ohinmaa  3   4 , Nguyen X Thanh  3   4 , Robert C Welsh  5   6   7 , Padma Kaul  5   6
Affiliations

The Healthcare Cost Burden of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Alberta, Canada

Dat T Tran et al. Pharmacoecon Open. 2018 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: Little is known about the cost burden of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) on healthcare systems. Accordingly, we examined the long-term trends of healthcare costs for AMI in the province of Alberta, Canada.

Methods: We linked five Albertan health databases, including ambulatory care, hospitalization, practitioner claims, pharmaceutical information network, and population registry to identify patients with a primary diagnosis of AMI between 2004 and 2013. We used the Alberta Interactive Health Data Application to provide unit costs for ambulatory care and inpatient services, claim paid amounts for physician services, and the Alberta Drug Benefit List for drug prices. Healthcare costs for AMI were grouped into ambulatory care, hospitalization, physician costs, and drug costs. All costs were converted to 2016 Canadian dollar values ($Can).

Results: A total of 52,912 patients with AMI were included in the analysis. Patient age decreased over time, as did the proportion of females. AMI cost the Alberta healthcare system Can$1033 million during the study period; of which the largest proportion was hospitalization costs (Can$716.4 million, 63.1%), followed by drug costs (Can$147.2 million, 21.1%), ambulatory care costs (Can$94.5 million, 8.8%) and physician costs (Can$74.9 million, 7.0%). The cost per AMI hospitalization decreased from Can$14,116 in 2004 to Can$11,792 in 2013 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Healthcare costs for AMI are significant; however, they decreased slightly during the study period. Hospital services accounted for the largest share of the costs. There are opportunities for further savings in AMI care.

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Conflict of interest statement

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Alberta Health; however, restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are, however, available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission from Alberta Health.

Conflict of interest

Dat T. Tran, Robert Welsh, Arto Ohinmaa, Thanh Nguyen, and Padma Kaul declare that they have no conflicts of interest and they received no financial support for this manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Healthcare costs for AMI in Alberta, Canada in 2016 Canadian dollars, 2004–2013
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of healthcare costs by AMI subtype in Alberta, Canada, 2004–2013. MI myocardial infarction, NSTEMI non-ST-segment elevation MI, STEMI ST-segment elevation MI
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Drug costs distribution by main Anatomical Therapeutic Classification (ATC) groups
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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