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Medical costs of Alzheimer's disease misdiagnosis among US Medicare beneficiaries
Author(s) -
Hunter Craig A.,
Kirson Noam Y.,
Desai Urvi,
Cummings Alice Kate G.,
Faries Douglas E.,
Birnbaum Howard G.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.06.1889
Subject(s) - medicine , disease , dementia , medical costs , comorbidity , medical diagnosis , intensive care medicine , pediatrics , psychiatry , health care , pathology , economics , economic growth
Abstract Introduction Recent developments in diagnostic technology can support earlier, more accurate diagnosis of non‐Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementias. Methods To evaluate potential economic benefits of early rule‐out of AD, annual medical resource use and costs for Medicare beneficiaries potentially misdiagnosed with AD prior to their diagnosis of vascular dementia (VD) or Parkinson's disease (PD) were compared with that of similar patients never diagnosed with AD. Results Patients with prior AD diagnosis used substantially more medical services every year until their VD/PD diagnosis, resulting in incremental annual medical costs of approximately $9,500‐$14,000. However, following their corrected diagnosis, medical costs converged with those of patients never diagnosed with AD. Discussion The observed correlation between timing of correct diagnosis and subsequent reversal in excess costs is strongly suggestive of the role of misdiagnosis of AD ‐ rather than AD comorbidity ‐ in this patient population. Our findings suggest potential benefits from earlier, accurate diagnosis.