Time trends in cost of caring for people with gastroesophageal reflux disease

Increasing acceptance of the many permutations of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has led to diverse study of the disease and its effects. The goal of this study was to estimate medical care costs attributable to a defined GERD population over time.

A retrospective cohort control design was used. All participants were identified from the database of a managed care organization serving 300,000 people in the northeastern United States. The index population (n = 600) was defined as anyone who obtained medical services during 1997 or 1998, for any International Classification of Diseases (ninth revision, Clinical Modification) codes suggestive of GERD, and/or anyone who received at least one prescription and one refill for antisecretory or GERD medications during at least two 3-month periods in 1997 or 1998. A matched cohort (n = 600) without any diagnosis of GERD was randomly selected as a control group. Both populations were observed restrospectively from January 1, 1990 through December 31, 1998.

The cost of treating GERD averaged around $510 per year, about 15% of all medical costs for those with GERD. Treating people with GERD was about 2-fold more costly than treating those without GERD, a marginal cost of $1500 to $2000 per annum.

Although GERD is a low-cost disease to treat, the cost of treating people with GERD is subtantially greater than that for a comparable population without GERD. Two explanations may account for the large difference of costs between the study populations. First, the GERD group may be sicker than the control group. Disease severity variables and diagnoses associated with GERD were more commonly diagnosed in the GERD group. Second, an additional disease that is not treated appropriately increases the cost of treatment geometrically for all diseases.