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[Cost of asthma therapy in relation to severity. An empirical study].

BACKGROUND: The aim of asthma therapy, i.e. the permanent elimination of the patient's symptoms, is as a rule, achievable over the long-term only with the aid of anti-inflammatory drugs. As well as medical, this approach also has considerable economic implications. The comparatively low compliance among asthmatics makes treatment in this context all the more difficult. An alternative that presents itself is the use of combination preparations, a mixture of a long-term prophylactic and a therapeutic agent. PATIENTS AND METHODS: With the aid of standardised questionnaires, data were acquired from 216 patients and assigned to subgroups in accordance with the degree of severity of the asthma. The patients were treated in the offices of a total of 23 GPs and internists selected at random from a complete list of all relevant practices in Germany. The use of resources, i.e. all diagnostic and therapeutic measures, was recorded retrospectively for a period of 1 year. In this way, all those resources of relevance to the health insurance carriers used during the observation period were identified. In addition to direct costs, so-called indirect costs were also estimated, i.e. in the present study the productivity loss to the economy due to illness-related absence from work. RESULTS: The annual cost of treating adult asthmatics was calculated to be DM 3,339 for level 1 severity, DM 5,260 for level 2 severity and DM 12,016 for level 3 severity. As the illness progresses in particular the direct cost of inpatient care and the indirect costs rise disproportionately. The yearly expenditure for women sufferers is about DM 800 more than for male sufferers. The direct cost of asthma treatment in children amounts to DM 2,950 for level 1, DM 3,225 for level 2, and DM 4,811 for level 3, severity. Here, drug-related costs in particular, rise significantly as the disease progresses. CONCLUSION: One of the results of the present study is the fact that for asthma sufferers in general, there is a positive correlation between average total costs and degree of severity. It may thus be postulated that preventive medical treatment of asthma that slows the progression of the illness, together with appropriate patient instruction, would have a positive effect on the total expenditure per patient. If, for example, the appropriate use of drugs in combination with patient instruction improved the compliance of asthmatics, lower treatment costs and a better quality of life for the patient could be expected.

Activities of Daily Living↗

[Insurance coverage in repetitive strain injury of the upper limbs as provided by the National Insurance Institute for Occupational Diseases].

A brief outline is given of the current status of the insurance "coverage" provided by INAIL for WMSDs. In breach of a specific European Union recommendation, in Italy various WMSDs can be recognised as occupational only based upon sentence No 179/88 of the Constitutional Court, since such disorders are not included in the list attached to DPR law 336/94. At present, during the period 1990-95, INAIL awarded indemnities in only a handful of cases. Details are provided concerning the evidence that must be submitted in the specific case of claims pertaining to suspected occupational diseases. The authors discuss the problems associated with quantifying injuries for the purposes of claiming indemnities for work-related musculo-skeletal disorders.

Causality↗

The evolving role of blood and marrow transplantation for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

With over 4 decades of seminal contributions to the development and application of BMT, Dr. Thomas stresses the importance of collaboration between rheumatologists and transplant clinicians in developing this evolving area of treatment. While the debate concerning the value of TBI in the conditioning regimen and the use of autologous or allogeneic stem cells will continue, he states there is simply no other way to answer these questions than to begin well designed clinical studies. As pointed out by Dr. Hahn, unexpected post-transplant complications may arise in patients with SSc and SLE and possibly require modifications to the transplant procedure similar to the experience in patients with other specific diseases. Other difficulties may be encountered, including restricted funding of the transplant procedure by insurance carriers. The emergence of managed care contracts and payer limitations in the United States described by Dr. Appelbaum could hinder the development of innovative, curative therapies. As initial clinical data are being collected, it is vital to actively support patient referral and participation in clinical studies that will ultimately establish the indications, risks, costs, and benefits of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for autoimmune disease.

Autoimmune Diseases↗

[Development of obligatory health insurance in the Kemerovo district].

Analysis of published data, foreign experience, and consultations with prominent foreign experts helped create the legislative basis for budget and insurance provision for the formation of medical insurance structure in the town of Kemerovo and helped develop instructions and recommendations on interactions between treatment-and-prophylactic institutions, public health organs, and medical insurance organizations.

Budgets↗

Integrated health care and the advanced practice nurse.

As state-designed Medicaid reforms are enacted and commercial insurance carriers begin to manage care, advanced practice nurses (APNs) must be ready to aggressively pursue opportunities for clinical participation. Understanding the contractual obligations of becoming a provider, as well as adopting strategies for successful participation in these emerging integrated networks, will be critical for APNs. Successful contracting requires a carefully defined set of practice activities and a willingness to become a team player in a complex organization.

Delivery of Health Care, Integrated↗