The Charlson comorbidity index can be used prospectively to identify patients who will incur high future costs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Reducing health care costs requires the ability to identify patients most likely to incur high costs. Our objective was to evaluate the ability of the Charlson comorbidity score to predict the individuals who would incur high costs in the subsequent year and to contrast its predictive ability with other commonly used predictors.

Methods

We contrasted the prior year Charlson comorbidity index, costs, Diagnostic Cost Group (DCG) and hospitalization as predictors of subsequent year costs from claims data of fund that provides comprehensive health benefits to a large union of health care workers. Total costs in the subsequent year was the principal outcome.

Results

Of the 181,764 predominantly Black and Latino beneficiaries, 70% were adults (mean age 45.7 years

SUBMITTER: Charlson M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4254512 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature