Table 1.

Study Sample Characteristics and Allowed Costs

Characteristics	Medicare patients	Commercial insurance patients
Total population, N	1,674,010	31,236,403
Allowed PMPM cost, $	1034.68	438.11
Average age, yrs	70.3	32.1
Female, %	55.0	51.3
Mortality rate, %	4.3	N/A
Comorbidity prevalence rate in the total population
Hyperkalemia, %	2.333	0.090
Ages 0–17 yrs, %	N/A	0.012
Ages 18–64 yrs, %	N/A	0.116
Diabetes, %	21.5	3.6
CKD, %	11.3	0.4
Heart failure, %	9.7	0.2
Hypertension, %	61.9	11.0
COPD, %	13.1	0.7
Patients with hyperkalemia, N	39,056	28,002
Allowed PPPM cost, $	5644.77	7400.74
Allowed PMPM cost, $	124.07 (12.0% of total)	7.09 (1.6% of total)
Average age, yrs	72.9	49.1
Female, %	51.9	44.3
Mortality rate, %	23.6	N/A
Comorbidity prevalence rate in patients with hyperkalemia
Diabetes, %	54.2	38.3
CKD, %	64.8	31.8
Heart failure, %	47.6	12.2
Hypertension, %	90.9	62.4
COPD, %	36.4	7.9

CKD indicates chronic kidney disease; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; N/A, not available; PMPM, per-member per-month; PPPM, per-patient per-month.

Source: Milliman's analysis of 2014 Medicare 5% sample data and MarketScan medical claims data.