New Findings from University of Florida Update Understanding of Hypertension (Out-of-pocket Payment for Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Among Commercially Insured In the United States)

2020 DEC 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx Hematology Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Cardiovascular Diseases and Conditions - Hypertension. According to news reporting originating from Gainesville, Florida, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Clinical guidelines increasingly recommended ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) for hypertension diagnosis and management. Yet, ABPM is used infrequently in the United States, possibly because of low insurance coverage and high patient costs.”

Financial support for this research came from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Florida, “We sought to analyze out-of-pocket payments (OPPs) for ABPM among privately insured patients. We conducted a retrospective analysis using IBM ® MarketScan ® commercial claims of beneficiaries aged >= 18 years receiving ABPM from January 2012 to December 2018. The date of first ABPM claim (Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System codes 93784, 93786, 93788, or 93790) was considered the index date. Patients with 12 months of continuous enrollment preindex and 30-day postindex were included. Per beneficiary OPP was calculated by aggregating all ABPM-related OPPs within the 30-day postindex window (ABPM episode). Of 22,317 beneficiaries receiving ABPM, 62% had $0 OPP and 38% had OPP >$0. Among the latter, median OPP per beneficiary for an ABPM episode was $23 (interquartile range DORI, $14, $32), driven primarily by full ABPM claims (median, $22; IQR, $14, $24). Among individual components, scan analysis and report claims (median, $25; IQR, $13, $49) had the greatest OPP. The median OPP per ABPM episode did not change substantively from 2012 through 2018. Among commercially insured in the United States, nearly 4-in-10 have an OPP for ABPM. Though most OPPs are relatively modest, some patients incur substantial OPP.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Our findings highlight the need for policymakers to ensure adequate ABPM coverage in the commercial insurance marketplace.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Out-of-pocket Payment for Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Among Commercially Insured In the United States. American Journal of Hypertension, 2020;33(11):999-1002. American Journal of Hypertension can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. (Nature Publishing Group - http://www.nature.com/; American Journal of Hypertension - http://www.nature.com/ajh/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Steven M. Smith, University of Florida, College of Pharmacy, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States. Additional authors for this research include Raj Desai, Haesuk Park and Eric A. Dietrich.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/ajh/hpaa120. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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