Economic Analysis of an Ambulatory Care Service Delivery Model for Hemophilia a Patients; A Cost Minimization Study

Aim: This study aimed to perform an economic evaluation of Hemophilia ambulatory service delivery model (HASDM) comparing to the traditional home-episodic treatment model.

Study Design: Tehran university of medical science, department pharmacoeconomics and pharmaceutical administration, between Jun 2016 and September 2018.

Methods: A cost-minimization analysis (CMA) was conducted for evaluating potential savings of HASDM in comparison to the traditional home-episodic treatment model. The main cost of regular episodic service delivery, basic arm, consists of the cost of recombinant factor VIII (FVIII). In the comparator arm, HASDM, the costs of HASDM for 1660 hemophilia A patients (HAPs) in Tehran were calculated. One-way sensitivity analysis was done to investigate the robustness of the results and to investigate the impact of uncertainty in the percentage of mistakes in bleeding sensation.

Results: There were 1660 patients with severe Hemophilia A (PWSHA) in Tehran in 2018. The mean utilization of annual per patient FVIII was 44814 international units (IUs) in Iran. The total annual cost of FVIII concentrate for 1660 hemophilic patients in Tehran was estimated at $ 11,001,816. The cost of running HASDM, personal, and equipment is equal to $ 580,956. The cost of FVIII in HASDM would be $ 4,004,661. Therefore, the total cost of HASDM is estimated at $ 4,585,617. The amount of savings was $ 6,416,199. Sensitivity analysis indicated the robustness of the results up to 94.64% of the variation in the model parameters.

Conclusions: HASDM, compared to episodic model, can save 58.32% of the funding for controlling bleeding in HAPs annually. This can save more than 38 times of HAPs annual cost over their lifetime.