Table 1.
Unit costs and sources
| Cost per person per event in 2013 US$ | |
|---|---|
| Cost of intervention | |
| CBT (per 16 hours of group sessions)1 | $150 |
| MBSR (per 16 hours of group sessions plus 6-hour retreat; 22 hours in total)1 | $150 |
| Health care cost per visit, mean (SD) | |
| All office-based and outpatient care2 | $79.97 (196.52) |
| Emergency department2 | $306.86 (238.22) |
| Hospital inpatient2 | $4,242.35 (9,150.44) |
| Pharmacy2 | $60.82 (129.79) |
| Imaging2 | $112.18 (84.03) |
| Copays | |
| Outpatient visits (per visit)3 | $20.00 |
| Emergency department (per visit)3 | $125.00 |
| Hospital inpatient (per stay)3 | $65.00 |
| Pharmacy (per prescription)3 | $15.00 |
| Lost productivity costs | |
| Employer Cost (per hour)4 | $31.21 |
CBT = cognitive behavioral therapy; MBSR = mindfulness-based stress reduction. The cost per participant for each was estimated based on the numbers of hours worked by the instructors per class (16 hours for offering the CBT sessions and 22 hours for MBSR, plus approximately 4 and 5 hours, respectively, for preparation) divided by the mean number of participants per class for each treatment (11.3 for CBT and 11.6 for MBSR); their hourly earnings plus fringe benefits ($77.00 per hour for PhD psychologists and $63.14 per hour for MBSR instructors), and materials costs ($5 per participant in each intervention). Since the two estimated amounts were so similar, we used $150 per participant for each.
Mean (and standard deviation) of the actual costs of each type of healthcare for the patients in this sample.
These are roughly the typical amounts patients paid out-of-pocket for visits and hospitalizations during the study.
Mean 2013 national total employer costs of employee compensation for civilian workers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.