Economic burden of patients with post-surgical chronic and transient hypoparathyroidism in the United States examined using insurance claims data

BACKGROUND

Hypoparathyroidism (HP) is a rare endocrine disease commonly caused by the removal or damage of parathyroid glands during surgery and resulting in transient (tHP) or chronic (cHP) disease. cHP is associated with multiple complications and comorbid conditions; however, the economic burden has not been well characterized. The objective of this study was to evaluate the healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and costs associated with post-surgical cHP, using tHP as a reference.

METHODS

This analysis of a US claims database included patients with both an insurance claim for HP and thyroid/neck surgery between October 2014 and December 2019. cHP was defined as an HP claim ≥ 6 months following surgery and tHP was defined as only one HP claim < 6 months following surgery. The cHP index date was the first HP diagnosis claim following their qualifying surgery claim, whereas the tHP index date was the last HP diagnosis claim following the qualifying surgery claim. Patients were continuously enrolled at least 1 year pre- and post-index. Patients' demographic and clinical characteristics, all-cause HCRU, and costs were descriptively analyzed. Total all-cause costs were calculated as the sum of payments for hospitalizations, emergency department, office/clinic visits, and pharmacy.

RESULTS

A total of 1,406 cHP and 773 tHP patients met inclusion criteria. The average age (52.1 years cHP, 53.5 years tHP) and representation of females (83.2% cHP, 81.2% tHP) were similar for both groups. Neck dissection surgery was more prevalent in cHP patients (23.6%) than tHP patients (5.3%). During the 1-2 year follow-up period, cHP patients had a higher prevalence of inpatient admissions (17.4%), and emergency visits (26.0%) than the reference group -tHP patients (14.4% and 21.4% respectively). Among those with a hospitalization, the average number of hospitalizations was 1.5-fold higher for cHP patients. cHP patients also saw more specialists, including endocrinologists (28.7% cHP, 15.8% tHP), cardiologists (16.7% cHP, 9.7% tHP), and nephrologists (4.6% cHP, 3.3% tHP).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates the increased healthcare burden of cHP on the healthcare system in contrast to patients with tHP. Effective treatment options are needed to minimize the additional resources utilized by patients whose HP becomes chronic.

Clinical Burden and Practice Patterns in Patients With Chronic Hypoparathyroidism in the United States (US): A Claims Data Analysis Using Diagnosis-Based Criteria

Objectives: Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the comorbidities, treatment and lab testing patterns of patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism (cHP). This study describes a large cohort of patients with cHP identified using a diagnosis-based criteria from a claims database.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using a large (130 million individuals) claims database (HealthVerity Closed Payer Claim Medical and Pharmacy databases: Private Source 20) from Oct 2014 to Dec 2019. Eligible patients had ≥2 diagnosis claims of HP (ICD9/10 codes: E20.0, E20.8, E20.9, 252.1) that were 6–15 months apart, a prescription claim for either active vitamin D, calcium, PTH or thyroid replacement therapy between the first qualifying HP claim and within 30 days of the second HP claim, and continuous enrollment for one year before the index date (the date of the first of two qualifying HP diagnosis claims) and ≥16 months after. Patients were followed up to two years after the index date. Patient characteristics, comorbidities, lab testing and treatment patterns were descriptively analyzed.

Results: Out of 43,640 patients with a diagnosis claim for HP, 4,118 patients met the eligibility criteria. The mean age of the cohort was 56.5 years + 18.6 (SD), and 76.4% were females, similar to data from other large cohort studies. The most common comorbidities during the 1-year follow-up were hypertension (56.0%), hypocalcemia (38.7%), cancer (30.5%, of which 24% were thyroid cancers), diabetes (29.4%), chronic pulmonary disease (24.1%), cardiac arrhythmias (17.4%), CKD stage 3–5 (17.0%), osteoporosis (9.6%) and neuropsychiatric disorders, including depressive disorders (22.0%), anxiety (21.6%), and sleep-wake disorders (18.4%). During the 1-year follow up, commonly monitored lab tests included serum calcium (89.9%), eGFR/creatinine (85.7%), 25-hydroxy vitamin D (61.1%), and intact PTH (43.9%). Remarkably, serum phosphorous (36.3%), serum magnesium (35.4%), and 24h-urine calcium (10.5%) were much less often monitored. In addition, BMD was measured in 10.9% patients. Also during the 1-year follow-up, 67.1% of patients had a prescription claim for thyroid replacement therapy, 60.5% for calcitriol, 15.7% for ergocalciferol, and 3.4 % for PTH.

Conclusion: Findings from this study highlight the high comorbidity burden in cHP patients which aligns with the monitoring patterns. Kidney function appears to be a key concern and may be important when considering therapeutic intervention. The comorbidities and practice patterns observed in this study are consistent with the results obtained using a surgery-based approach to identify cHP patients in the same claims database. Future studies will also examine the economic burden of cHP.

Clinical Burden and Practice Patterns in Patients With Chronic Hypoparathyroidism in the United States (US): A Claims Data Analysis Using Surgery-Based Criteria

Objectives: Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the clinical burden and practice patterns associated with chronic hypoparathyroidism (cHP). This study assessed the clinical burden and practice patterns in patients with cHP identified using surgery-based criteria.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using a large (130 million individuals) US claims database, the HealthVerity Closed Payer Claim Medical and Pharmacy database (Private Source 20) from Oct 2014 to Dec 2019. The patient eligibility criteria for the surgery-based method included the presence of a procedure claim of either parathyroidectomy, complete or partial thyroidectomy, or neck dissection, followed by a HP diagnosis claim (6–15 months apart) with a subsequent second HP diagnosis claim at any time point, and with continuous enrollment for 15 months before the index date (the date of the first qualifying HP diagnosis claim) and ≥6 months after. Patients were followed one year before the surgery and up to two years after the index date. Patient characteristics, comorbidities, laboratory testing and treatment patterns were descriptively analyzed.

Results: A total of 1,406 patients met the eligibility criteria, among which 1,184 patients had complete data for 1-year follow-up. The mean age was 52.1 + 16.4 (SD) years, and 83.2% were females. The mean time between surgery and qualifying HP diagnosis claim was 8.7 + 2.3 (SD) months, and 115 patients (8.2%) had a HP diagnosis prior to surgery. During the 1-year follow-up, the most common comorbidities were cancer (54.2%, of which 49% were thyroid cancers), hypertension (49.7%), hypocalcemia (47.1%), chronic pulmonary disease (21.9%), diabetes (21.7%), cardiac arrhythmias (18.4%), CKD stage 3–5 (11.3%), osteoporosis (9.8%), and neuropsychiatric disorders, including anxiety (23.9%), depressive disorders (21.8%), and sleep-wake disorders (20.9%). Most cHP patients were monitored for lab values. These included serum calcium (93.2%), eGFR/creatinine (86.2%), 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D (66.5%), intact PTH (63.0%), serum magnesium (40.9%), serum phosphorous (38.4%), bone mineral density (9.8%), and 24h-urine calcium (8.4%) during the 1-year follow up. Also within the 1-year follow-up, 66.9% of patients had a prescription claim for thyroid replacement therapy, 51.6% for calcitriol, 13.3% for ergocalciferol, and 5.5 % for PTH.

Conclusion: This cHP population, identified using surgery-based criteria, largely consists of patients with a recent diagnosis, and had a substantial comorbidity burden that aligned with the monitoring patterns. Already at this early stage of cHP, kidney function appears to be a key concern and may be important when considering therapeutic intervention. These data are consistent with our findings from a larger cHP population identified in the same database using a diagnosis-based approach.