Key result
Treated pulmonary arterial hypertension carries high burden, averaging ~$259,000 in annual per-patient healthcare costs.
Why the study?
The recent real-world clinical and economic burden of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in the US was not well quantified using contemporary data.
Cohort (n=2,712)
Despite newer therapies, pulmonary arterial hypertension imposes a substantial contemporary economic and clinical burden in the US, highlighted by frequent ICU hospitalizations and high total healthcare expenditures, especially for patients requiring IV/SC prostacyclins.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
High hospitalization and cost burden in treated PAH warrants closer monitoring; leaves open optimal strategies for prospective evaluation.
This study quantified the recent real‐world burden of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) using US real‐world data. Adults (18+) with treated PAH were identified from the MarketScan Commercial/Medicare Databases using a claims‐based algorithm requiring pulmonary hypertension diagnosis, PAH‐specific treatment, and right heart catheterization from January 1, 2017 to August 31, 2024 (earliest treatment claim = index). Patients were followed for ≥ 30 days post‐index, overall and stratified by payer and by treatment categories. Subsets of PAH‐hospitalized and newly treated patients were also analyzed. Measures included demographics, clinical characteristics, all‐cause healthcare utilization/costs, PAH‐related hospitalization costs/characteristics, and all‐cause mortality. Overall, 2712 treated PAH patients were included (mean age 61.8 years, 68.9% female, 57.9% commercial insurance). During mean 2.2 years of follow‐up, mean (median) per‐patient‐per‐year all‐cause healthcare costs were $302,014 ($210,888) for commercially‐insured patients and $200,581 ($147,706) for Medicare patients. Over half (56.2%) of patients had ≥ 1 all‐cause hospitalization, 44.9% had ≥ 1 PAH‐related hospitalization, and 31.0% were hospitalized for ≥ 1 complication (thrombosis [14.1%], hemorrhage [12.5%], sepsis [14.9%]). Among the PAH‐hospitalized subset ( N = 1079), median time to re‐hospitalization was 1.2 years. The mean (median) cost per PAH‐related hospitalization was $89,799 ($30,224) for commercially‐insured and $37,288 ($15,733) for Medicare patients, and 57.2% of hospitalizations required an ICU stay. Among the newly treated subset ( N = 2072), 9.7%, 18.6%, and 25.2% of patients died within 1, 2, and 3 years after treatment initiation. Despite recent therapeutic advancements, PAH patients continue to have a substantial clinical and economic burden. These findings highlight ongoing unmet need and underscore the importance of continued monitoring of disease burden as PAH therapies evolve.
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Ravichandran et al. (2026) conducted a cohort in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (n=2,712). Treated pulmonary arterial hypertension was evaluated on Mean per-patient-per-year all-cause healthcare costs. Treated pulmonary arterial hypertension is associated with substantial burden, with 56.2% of patients requiring all-cause hospitalization and mean per-patient-per-year healthcare costs of $259,339.
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