Background:

Hospital costs associated with Hepatitis C (HCC) arise in the final stages of the disease. Its quantification is very helpful in order to estimate and check the burden of the disease and to make financial decisions for new antivirals. The highest costs are due to the decompensation of cirrosis.

Methods:

Cross-sectional observational study of hospital costs of HCC diagnoses in the Valencian Community in 2013 (n= 4.486 hospital discharges). Information source: Minimum basic set of data/Basic Minimum Data Set. The costs were considered according to the rates established for the DRG associated with the episodes with diagnosis of hepatitis C. The average survival of patients since the onset of the decompensation of their cirrhosis was estimated by a Markov model, according to the probabilities of evolution of the disease existing in Literatura.

Results:

There were 4.486 hospital episodes, 1,108 due to complications of HCC, which generated 6,713 stays, readmission rate of 28.2% and mortality of 10.2%. The hospital cost amounted to 8,788.593EUR: 3,306.333EUR corresponded to Cirrhosis (5,273EUR/patient); 1,060,521EUR to Carcinoma (6,350EUR/patient) and 2,962,873EUR to transplantation (70.544EUR/paciente. Comorbidity was 1,458,866EUR. These costs are maintained for an average of 4 years once the cirrhosis decompensation begins.

Conclusions:

Cirrhosis due to HCC generates a very high hospitalization’s costs. The methodology used in the estimation of these costs from the DRG can be very useful to evaluate the trend and economic impact of this disease.

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