Healthcare Utilization, Costs of Care, and Mortality Among Patients With Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

OBJECTIVES

To understand treatment patterns, healthcare resource utilization, and costs of care among patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Methods

SMA patients were identified from a large managed care population using administrative claims data from January 2006 to March 2016. Patients were classified into infantile, childhood-onset, and late-onset groups based on age of first SMA diagnosis. They were matched 1:1 to non-SMA patients based on age, gender, geography, and health plan type.

RESULTS

In the infantile group, 17.4% and 26.1% were treated with invasive and non-invasive ventilation, respectively. Uses of orthotics/orthoses and orthopedic surgery were frequent: 54.5% and 22.7% childhood group; 27.0% and 38.5% late-onset group. Mean per member per month costs in SMA vs. matched non-SMA patients was $25,517 vs. $406 (infantile); $6,357 vs. $188 (childhood-onset); $2,499 vs. $742 (late-onset).

CONCLUSIONS

SMA patients, particularly with infantile onset, incurred significantly higher healthcare utilization and costs than the general population.