Table 2.
Annual economic burdens of total direct medical cost per patient in PAC and non-PAC cohorts before and after one-year rehabilitation.
| Cost Components | PAC Cohort (n = 455) # | Non-PAC Cohort (n = 455) | Differences (PAC–non-PAC) |
Economic Burden * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean ± SD | Mean ± SD | |||
| Diagnosis fee | 4139.5 ± 1798.1 | 1089.0 ± 157.3 | ||
| Ward fee | 2882.2 ± 560.9 | |||
| Examination fee | 1619.0 ± 373.9 | |||
| Medicine and pharmacy service fee | 450.1 ± 25.1 | |||
| Rehabilitation therapy fee | 1103.5 ± 273.6 | |||
| Other fees | 1785.9 ± 430.9 | |||
| Total direct medical cost during rehabilitation | 4139.5 ± 1798.1 | 8929.8 ± 1827.1 | −4790.3 ± 1805.7 | |
| Total direct medical cost after discharge | 1187.2 ± 1148.6 | 1246.0 ± 1203.6 | −58.8 ± 35.6 | |
| Total direct medical cost | 5326.7 ± 1933.5 | 10,175.8 ± 2377.9 | −4849.1 ± 2685.7 | −354,886,232.6 |
PAC, post-acute care; SD, standard deviation; ICER, incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. # Mean direct medical cost for the PAC cohort, hospitals will receive a packaged and function-related reimbursement by day, that is, a maximal packaged imbursement of US $117.6 per day for high-intensity rehabilitation or US $79.0 per day for general-intensity rehabilitation covering whole medical expenses for stroke care, managing associated comorbidities and complications, and rehabilitation. * Economic burden during 1 year after rehabilitation is US $4849.1 per patient × 318.2 patients per 100,000 person-year (age-standardized incidence of first-ever stroke) × 23,000,000 persons (Taiwan nationwide population). Therefore, annual per-patient economic burden of total direct medical cost approximately equals to US $354.6 million.