Diagnostic and treatment costs of patients diagnosed or suspected of COVID-19 disease in eastern Iran

To understand the social and individual effects of the disease and to decide on the allocation of health resources, it is necessary to recognize the economic burden of coronary heart disease (COVID-19). However, there is limited data in this area. The aim of this study was to estimate the diagnostic and treatment costs of patients with or suspected of having Covid-19 disease admitted to hospitals in Eastern Iran.

This descriptive and analytical retrospective study was performed using data collected from 2980 patients admitted to 30 hospitals from February 2020 to April 2021 in Iran. To collect the data, a suitable data collection tool was designed to record the details of resource usage. A multivariate regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between treatment costs and socio-demographic, disease severity, and underlying diseases. Data were analyzed using Excel 2017 software and SPSS version 21 .

The cost of hospitalization per patient was 5433500 Rials, of which 74% was paid by social health insurance systems, 19% by the government and 7% by patients. The largest components were the cost of hoteling (37%) and medicine (36%). The 4 subscales predicted age, sex, underlying disease, and severity of 48.6% of the cost variance.

Understanding the economic consequences of diseases can help policymakers in planning to reduce out-of-pocket payments and planning for financing. Since Covid-19 is an emerging disease and there is no definitive cure for it,discovering an effective drug may change medical costs and reduce the length of hospital stay, thus significantly reducing treatment costs.