TABLE 1.
Emergency Hospital Admissions and Physician Visits of 75,628 Chronic Users of Inhaled Medications Before and After the Copay and IBD Policy Changes
| Outcome | Baseline Period (Months 1–12) Events/1000Person-Years* | Copay Period (Months 13–28) |
IBD Period (Months 29–40) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events/1000 Person-Years* | Ajusted RR* | Excess Events/1000 Person-Years† | (95% CI) | Events/1000 Person-Years* | Ajusted RR* | Excess Events/1000 Person-Years† | (95% CI) | ||
| Admission via emergency room for COPD, asthma, or emphysema | |||||||||
| Policy group (≥65 yr) | 67 | 72 | 1.13 | 9.0 | (−1.8–21.5) | 79 | 1.29 | 19.2 | (6.1–34.7) |
| Control group (55–64 yr) | 36 | 35 | 36 | ||||||
| Physician visits | |||||||||
| Policy group (≥65 yr) | 22,013 | 22,298 | 1.03 | 605 | (324–889) | 19,068 | 1.07 | 1476 | (1103–1852) |
| Control group (55–64 yr) | 17,739 | 17,626 | 14,520 | ||||||
*
Events and adjusted rate ratios (RR) were previously reported in health outcomes study.16
†
Excess events calculated as [(events/1000 person-years at baseline) × adjusted rate ratio] − events/1000 person-years at baseline.