Comparative Cost Analysis of Therapy in Sickle Cell Anemia: Supportive Care Vs. Bone Marrow Transplant

Objective: A comparative cost analysis of sickle cell admissions vs. stem cell transplants in sickle cell patients.

Hypothesis: We believe the overall cost of a bone marrow transplant for a sickle cell patient will be less than that of a patient with multiple sickle cell admissions.

Background: Sickle cell disease remains an increasing burden to the cost of health care and health care providers. The disease results in a variety of serious organ system complications that can lead to life-long disabilities and/or early death. Despite the advent of hydroxyurea, sickle cell admissions and cost have been increasing over the course of several years. Various contributing factors may include socioeconomic status, complications of sickle cell anemia itself, narcotic dependence and noncompliance with medications.

Bone marrow transplants were introduced in 1982 as an option for the treatment of sickle cell anemia, and are currently the only curative option in this disease. A study conducted at the NIH from 2004-2013, found that bone marrow transplant reversed the disease in 26 of 30 patients (87%) (Hseih et al, N Engl J Med 2009; 361:2309-2317). The patients ultimately had a normal hemoglobin, fewer hospitalizations, and lower use of narcotics to treat pain from the disease. However, the underutilization of bone marrow transplant continues to exist and may in part be secondary to a lack of fully matched donors. To overcome this challenge, the Johns Hopkins group developed a nonmyeloablative bone marrow transplantation platform using HLA haploidentical donors for patients using posttransplant cyclophosphamide. As a result, 17 patients were successfully transplanted, 14 from HLA-haploidentical and 3 from HLA-matched related donors (Meade et al, Blood. 2012; 120(22):4285-4291). Due to this, most patients with sickle cell disease have the potential to undergo a successful bone marrow transplant. However, an analysis comparing the cost of admissions vs. transplant has yet to be determined. In order to create an effective cost comparison, we utilized a nationwide database.

Methods: US hospital admissions were identified from discharge data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality from 1998 to 2011 using ICD9 codes. Admissions were included if they had an ICD9 code for Sickle cell anemia (282.5).

Results:

The cost per hospitalization has almost doubled since 1998, despite a slight decrease in length of stay from an average of 6.5 days to 5.6 days from 1998-2011. According to the data base from our study, the average cost per patient per hospitalization was $24,687. The average number of admissions per year for a single patient with sickle cell anemia is 6 (Ballas et al, Am J Hem 2009) for an estimated overall cost per year of $148,000. However, this value underestimates the true cost since this does not include emergency room visits, medicine costs, and readmission rates.

Conclusion: In the age of cost effective medicine, clinicians struggle to find a balance between low cost and optimal patient care. An underutilized modality of care and even cure for sickle cell disease is bone marrow transplant. The sickle cell information center website estimates the cost of the transplant process for most patients to be $150,000 to $250,000 which includes pre-transplant evaluation, transplant stay, and post-transplant follow-up (https://scinfo.org). We estimate that a bone marrow transplant is approximately equivalent to the cost of ten sickle cell hospital admissions. According to this analysis, undergoing a bone marrow transplant would ultimately prove to be more cost efficient while decreasing the rate of complications associated with this debilitating disease.