Assessing Costs & Cost-variability Among Enrollees of Health Insurance Programs Utilizing Charlson's Comorbidity Index and Administrative Databases

Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Multiple Chronic Illnesses

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01761253

WCMC IRB No. 910010709

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will involve the evaluation of the cost profile of about approximately 241,000 patients (15,000 who are members of the Generations Plus/ Northern Manhattan Health Network AND 226,000 members of a large self insured union trust fund). We will test the hypothesis that as comorbidity scores exceed three-four, patients will have an exponential increase in average yearly cost with a parallel exponential increase in cost variability.

We will examine the relationship between comorbidity and health insurance costs and variability in costs among patients enrolled in health plans.

Enrollment: 241,000 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients with different burdens of comorbidity who have at least two continuous years of enrollment in the Generations Plus/ Northern Manhattan Health Network between June 2007 to July 2009 and members of a large self insured union trust fund from 2007-2010

Trial design

241,000 participants in 1 patient group

Assessing costs & cost-variability

Description:

Data for the approximately 15,000 patients who were continuously enrolled during the calendar years 2006 and 2007 in the Generations Plus/ Northern Manhattan Health Network and 226,000 members of a large self insured union trust fund from 2007-2010 will be combined. The data will include age, gender, length of plan enrollment, whether or not the patient is disabled, their diagnoses, and their use of medical and social services.