Claims analyses were based upon amounts paid by the health plans, rather than billed or standardized costs, as well as patient responsibility amounts; costs paid by other health plans and Medicare were not included. Cost and healthcare utilization were considered HCV-related if any HCV-related ICD-9-CM codes or CPT codes

(i.e., codes indicating HCV, liver disease, or HCV treatment) occurred in a primary or secondary position in a claim. The costs of evaluation Small molecule library of patients for orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) and of OLT were included provided that claims for procedures contained HCV-related codes. Pharmacy claims were submitted electronically by pharmacies at the time of dispensing. The pharmacy claims history comprised the outpatient prescription drug profile and included drug name, dosage form, strength, date of fill, number of days supplied, financial information, and deidentified patient and prescriber codes, which allowed for longitudinal tracking of medication refills and changes in medications. HCV-related pharmacy claims included the costs of antiviral therapy (pegylated or consensus interferon

and ribavirin) and the costs of drugs used to treat side effects of antiviral therapy (the consensus panel of three clinical hepatologists defined and agreed upon the medications that were considered to be HCV-related). Mortality data were obtained from Social Security Administration (SSA) death tapes which, with a proper linkage, allowed for the establishment of the date of Sotrastaurin death, but not the cause of death. The analyses were conducted from a health plan perspective. Healthcare utilization and selleck products costs were compared for patients with ESLD versus patients with NCD, and for patients with CC versus patients with NCD. Costs and healthcare utilization were analyzed using multivariate models with liver disease severity as the primary predictor of interest in two ways: one unadjusted statistical model and one adjusted model with

demographic, comorbidity, and treatment variables as covariates. Because of the small number of patients aged 0-17 with chronic HCV (n = 234), patients <18 years of age were excluded from the sample used for multivariate analysis. Cost and utilization outcomes were analyzed using generalized linear models with a gamma distribution (gamma regression) and log link. Utilization outcomes with a small number of zero counts were modeled using a one-part model. Utilization outcomes with a large number of zero counts were modeled using two-part models, specifically, a logit model to estimate the probability of having any visit, and a gamma regression model with a log link was used to estimate the number of visits among those individuals with at least one visit. The predicted number of visits for all patients in the sample was estimated by multiplying the predicted probability of having any visit by the predicted number of visits among those with at least one visit.