Costs of broad-spectrum antibiotic use for acute sinusitis, chronic bronchitis, and pneumonia in a managed care population.

Respiratory infections place a heavy burden on patients, providers, employers, and health care systems. The prescribing of antibiotics is common, despite the fact that many respiratory conditions are caused by viruses. The economic effect of treating respiratory tract infections with broad-spectrum antibiotics was retrospectively analyzed by means of health care claims data from six managed care health plans affiliated with a large national insurer. A regression model was used to adjust for factors that can influence treatment costs, such as age, baseline cost, retreatment, and drug cost. The costs of treating chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, and acute sinusitis with moxifloxacin, gatifloxacin and nonfluoroquinolone broad-spectrum agents were significantly lower than the costs associated with levofloxacin treatment.