Table 3.

Treatment cost savings from SHDGP Diabetes Program (AUD 2005)

	Cost saving per patient-year(a)	Range for sensitivity testing
Hospitalization costs(b)	-44	-86 to -44
Antidiabetic prescribing(c)	-40	-40 to 0
Guideline compliance(d)	+50	+10 to +90
Total	-34	-116 to +46

(a) Negative sign indicates cost saving

(b) AIHW estimate health expenditure on diabetes per patient-year of $A1,469, with 37% for hospital services. Updating to 2005 prices gives an estimated expenditure of $A601 per patient-year on hospital services. Estimated savings are obtained by applying the percentage reduction in costs of treating complications from the UKPDS model (7.4% – see Table 2). The larger saving of $A86 per patient-year used in sensitivity testing is the difference between the cost of hospital episodes with ICD-10 codes 10–14 for SHDGP ($A255 per patient-year) and for NSW ($A341). Data provided by NSW Health.

(c) The difference between the annual cost to the PBS of prescription antidiabetic agents per type 2 diabetic patient in SHDGP ($A80.95) and nationally ($A121.50). Reflects a difference in the prescribing rate of 5.1 scripts per person in SHDGP and 7.7 nationally.

(d) The increase in treatment cost due to guideline compliance of $A50 is an indicative figure based on the average annual cost per diabetic patient of out-of-hospital medical services and other professional services of $A454 in 2005 prices and the difference between the proportion of known diabetic patients giving rise to SIP claims in SHDGP (31%) and nationally (20%).

Source: SHDGP Diabetes Program; [34], p.1 and Table 2; [33,35]