Insulin Pen Saves 17,000 Dollars Over Vial+Syringe

For patients with type 2 diabetes, using a insulin pen is associated with reduced health care utilization compared with using vials and syringes, according to results of a new study. The reduced use of health care resources translates directly into cost savings. Senior author Dr. Rajesh Balkrishnan notes in his paper that, a pen device is easier to use, provides greater dose accuracy, and is more satisfactory to patients, compared with a syringe.

To compare costs related to initiation of insulin treatment using pens (NovoPen or FlexPen, Novo Nordisk, Inc.) or syringes, Dr. Balkrishnan, at Ohio State University in Columbus, and his associates accessed the North Carolina Medicaid program patient-claims database. They restricted their analyses to patients with type 2 diabetes enrolled between September 2001 and July 2006, who had completed at least 24 months of follow-up.

Their comparison included 1162 patients who initiated insulin therapy with a syringe, and 168 who began therapy with an insulin pen.

Newly initiated insulin pen therapy was associated with reductions in outpatient visits, hospitalizations, and total health care costs compared with those using syringes. The total annual health care costs, excluding prescriptions, averaged roughly $14,900 in the pen group and $32,000 in the syringe users.

The cost savings were driven primarily by reduced use of hospital-based treatment (approximately $1,200 and $5,000, respectively), the investigators report. Costs associated with outpatient visits, medication, and health care for diabetes-related comorbidities were also less expensive.

Even though the initial cost of an insulin pen is greater than that for syringes, the overall cost benefits of using pens exceed those for syringe use, the report indicates.

Dr. Balkrishnan and his associates write that "diabetes management programs should therefore be designed with components to improve patients’ awareness of insulin devices and encourage their use in low-income minority populations with type 2 diabetes to prevent excessive expenditures for other health care resources."
Clin Ther 2007;29:1294-1305.

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FACT:
Statins for All Diabetic Patients Justified: A strategy of treating all diabetic men older than 40 years and all diabetic women older than 45 years with statins would be effective and efficient in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) events.  For every 25 patients treated you could prevent 1 cardiovascular event.  See this week’s Item #4