Background: Most patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) administer insulin by multiple daily injections (MDI). However, continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) therapy has been shown to improve glycemic control compared with MDI.
Objective: The objective was to determine the key medical event and cost offsets generated over a 4-year period by introducing CSII to T1D patients who have inadequately controlled glucose metabolism on MDI in Germany.
Methods: A decision-analytic budget impact model, simulating a treatment switch scenario, was developed. In the base case, all T1D patients received MDI, while in the switch scenario, 20% of the eligible T1D population, randomly selected, moved to CSII. The model focused on 2 medical endpoints and their corresponding cost offsets: severe hypoglycemic events requiring hospitalization (SHEH) and complication-borne diabetic events (CDEs) avoided. Event rates and costs were taken from the literature and official sources, adopting a health insurance perspective.
Results: Compared with the base case, treating 20% of patients with CSII in the switch scenario resulted in 47 864 fewer SHEH and 5543 fewer CDEs. This led to total cost offsets of €183 085 281 within the 4-year time horizon. Of these, 92% were driven by avoided SHEH. Compared to an expected budget impact (cost increase) of 83%, only treatment costs considered, the total impact of the switch scenario amounted merely to a 24.5% increase in costs (reduction by 58.5% points; a factor of 3.4).
Conclusion: The use of CSII resulted in fewer SHEH and CDEs compared to MDI. The incurred CSII implementation costs are hence offset to a substantial degree by cost savings in complication treatment.
Keywords: German costs data; budget impact; complication-borne diabetic events; continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion; glucose monitoring; severe hypoglycemic events; type 1 diabetes.
© 2016 Diabetes Technology Society.