Estimation of Lifetime Costs Among Insured Persons with HIV in the United States

With recent advances in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) management and prevention, it is critical to understand the lifetime costs (LTC) of HIV. The objective of the study was to evaluate all-cause LTC, annual costs and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) among persons with HIV (PWH) versus a matched non-HIV cohort in the United States (US).

This observational study included persons (≥ 18 years) with an HIV diagnosis, antiretroviral treatment (ART), and continuous enrollment (CE) within each year (2018-2023) in the PWH cohort, and with no HIV diagnosis/ART and CE in the non-HIV cohort, identified using a US commercial claims database (IQVIA PharMetrics^® Plus). Cohorts were matched 1:3 on age, sex, geographic region, and health plan. Undiscounted LTC, discounted LTC (95% confidence interval [CI]) and annual costs were computed in 2022 US dollars (USD) for ages 18-75 years. Annual inpatient, outpatient, emergency room, and outpatient pharmacy utilization and costs were compared.

Person counts ranged from 45,465 to 54,530 in the PWH cohort and 136,395 to 163,590 in the non-HIV cohort from 2018 to 2023. Mean undiscounted LTC were $2,895,020 (CI 2,847,453-2,947,867) and $482,522 (CI 453,114-513,44) for PWH and non-HIV cohorts, respectively, with an incremental cost difference of $2,412,498 (CI 2,354,674-2,474,024). Mean discounted LTC were $1,299,210 (CI 1,279,397-1,321,458) and $181,481 (CI 169,392-194,036) for PWH and non-HIV cohorts, respectively, with an incremental cost difference of $1,117,729 (CI 1,093,606-1,143,350). Mean annual total costs were six to seven times higher among PWH than the non-HIV cohort each year; with higher costs among older persons. HCRU was higher among PWH.

Among a sample of primarily commercially insured US adults, HIV conferred an estimated incremental LTC difference of over $2.4 million (undiscounted) and $1.1 million (discounted), with annual costs being six to seven times higher for PWH compared to non-HIV persons.