Economic Impact of Lyme Disease, Appendix 2

Past Issue

Vol. 12, No. 4
April 2006

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•	Appendix 1
•	Appendix 3
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Research

Economic Impact of Lyme Disease

Xinzhi Zhang,* Martin I. Meltzer,* César A. Peña,†¹ Annette B. Hopkins,† Lane Wroth,‡ and Alan D. Fix†
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; †University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; and ‡Care First-Easton Branch (previously Delmarva Health Plan), Easton, Maryland, USA

Appendix 2. Direct Medical Costs Equation

For each patient, direct medical costs of Lyme disease (LD) and relevant complaints were calculated as follows:

Y_i = Σ C_it

Where Y is the total direct medical costs for patient i and C_it is the direct medical cost of type t for patient i. Different types (t) of direct medical costs involved in this study included physician visits, consultation, serology, procedure, therapy, hospitalization/emergency room, and other relevant costs.

Cost of physician visits: refers to total visit charges per patient with primary provider or physician managing LD. It includes charges for procedures only performed in the office at the time of the visit. All other procedures were covered in the cost of procedure category.

Cost of consultation: refers to total charges per patient accrued at the time of consultation including only those procedures (e.g., laboratory procedures or electrocardiography) done in the office at that time. All other procedures ordered by the consult but done off site (e.g., magnet resonance imaging or computerized tomography) were covered in the cost of procedure category.

Cost of serology: refers to total charges of LD serology tests (e.g., enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or Western blotting test) for each patient.

Cost of procedure: refers to total charges per patient of all other procedures not covered in office visits, consultation, or hospital and emergency room.

Cost of therapy: refers to total charges per patient of therapy including antibiotics and additional costs associated with intravenous therapy (e.g., other medications such as saline solutions, heparin, local anesthetics; registered nurse home visits; X-ray; etc.)

Cost of hospitalization/emergency room: refers to total hospital and/or emergency room charges per patient. It includes physician fees and ambulance fees.

Other relevant costs: refer to other appropriate charges for each patient such as charges for additional laboratory tests.

¹Current affiliation: Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Comments to the Authors

Please use the form below to submit correspondence to the authors or contact them at the following address:

Xinzhi Zhang, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Mailstop D59, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA; fax: 404-371-5445; email: XZhang4@cdc.gov

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		This page posted March 13, 2006 This page last reviewed March 21, 2006

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