Health care costs and resource utilization among patients with myasthenia gravis in the United States.

BACKGROUND

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a rare neuromuscular disorder with an estimated prevalence of 37 per 100,000 individuals in the United States. Despite patients with MG using a wide range of health care services, there is a lack of information regarding health care costs and health care resource utilization (HCRU).

OBJECTIVE

To gain insight into the health care cost and HCRU associated with an MG diagnosis from the US payer perspective.

METHODS

Patients with MG, defined by at least 2 claims for MG diagnoses, were identified from a commercial and Medicare claims database between 2016 and 2021. Controls who were never diagnosed with MG were matched at a 10:1 ratio with each patient with MG based on baseline demographic and clinical characteristics. The primary outcomes were 1-year total health care costs associated with MG diagnosis, and the secondary outcomes were 1-year HCRU associated with MG diagnosis. Difference-in-difference estimates from a multivariable linear regression model were used to report adjusted health care costs and HCRU.

RESULTS

The final analytic cohort included 3,700 patients with MG and 37,000 controls. On average, patients were aged 54 years, with 60% being female. The difference-in-difference estimates of the total health care cost for MG diagnosis in commercial and Medicare patients were $25,799 and $4,927, respectively (P < 0.01). MG diagnosis had significant impacts on HCRU across all health care settings.

CONCLUSIONS

We quantified a significant increase in health care costs and HCRU in the first year following diagnosis of MG compared with the matched cohort. Future studies can further investigate long-term health care costs associated with patients with MG.