People with long Covid symptoms had healthcare spending anywhere from three to five times higher than people without long Covid, a new study found.
The study by the Health Care Cost Institute analyzed a database of claims covering more than a third of people in the United States with employer-sponsored insurance. The records focused on “patients with evidence of incident acute COVID-19 infection (index date) between April 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021.”
The study is important because it uses insurance industry claims data for a large number of people with employer-sponsored insurance to assess spending and health consequences of long Covid for a big cohort. It is likely to be used to assess expected spending on patients with exposure to Covid or a previous long Covid diagnosis. Other studies of large patient groups have included Veterans Administration data, which is skewed to older white men, as opposed to the expectation that the insurance industry data used in this H.C.C.I. study takes in a broader population.
Most people who get Covid recover, but “a substantial proportion of people experience symptoms long after their initial infection (Long COVID),” the study said. Among key findings:
- 1 in 4 people with acute Covid infections experienced long Covid symptoms
- People experienced long Covid symptoms even if they were not hospitalized with acute Covid
- The most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue, anxiety/depression, abdominal symptoms, and abnormal breathing. (These were the symptoms captured on health insurance claims, the study noted, not an exhaustive list of the overall symptoms experienced by patients.)
- Some people with one long Covid symptom still went to multiple follow-up medical visits
- “People with Long Covid were more likely to be rediagnosed with acute Covid following their initial diagnosis. Among patients with an acute diagnosis, nearly 15% had a subsequent acute Covid” diagnosis. “When looking just at the people with long Covid symptoms, we find that almost 26% had a subsequent acute Covid diagnosis. In contrast, only approximately 11% of people without long Covid symptoms had an additional acute Covid diagnosis.”
- People with long Covid symptoms had healthcare spending nearly twice as high as people who did not have long Covid. “During Covid, people who later developed Long Covid symptoms had spending that was about three times higher,” but after acute Covid, “People with long Covid symptoms had spending that was almost five times higher than people without long Covid symptoms.”
The Health Care Cost Institute is an an independent, non-profit organization with leading health claims datasets from insurers. This study used data from AHIP, the insurance industry trade association.
- Symptoms”
