Cost to Save a Life in Heart Failure: Health Disparity Costs Lives

Objective The purpose of this paper is to assign a dollar value to life-saving medication, surgical procedures, and medical devices. The knowledge of the wide variation in the cost of drugs, surgery, and devices allows providers and patients to choose higher-valued therapies. Cost is a significant barrier to health. The current reimbursement system is complicated, representing a significant barrier to saving lives by promoting health disparity. Background The cost analysis of heart failure therapies is an important tool in the education of physicians, patients, and vendors of the intervention. The analysis demonstrates disparities between heart failure therapies. The cost to save a single life is calculated from annualized absolute mortality risk reduction, trial length, and estimated 10-year costs. The method allows comparisons of drugs, devices, and surgery. Methods The 10-year cost of drugs is 120 months times the cost of a drug/month as listed by the website GoodRX.com. The 10-year cost of surgery or device therapy was determined from a cost analysis found by a Google search of the literature. When wide ranges were reported, the mean value was selected. 1/absolute mortality risk reduction X 100 is the number needed to treat to save a life annualized for the mean length of the study. The cost to save a life can then be computed by the following formula: Cost/life saved = (10-year cost/annualized absolute mortality risk reduction) X (100) Results Beta-blockers and spironolactone had the lowest cost per life saved at $13,333 and $21,818, respectively. Defibrillators are the most expensive at $6,417,856. Valsartan/sacubitril has a cost of $1,127,733. Dapagliflozin, the newest class of heart failure drug, costs $4,853,200. Conclusions Calculating the cost to save a life gives insight into the value of therapies and demonstrates disparities. It is a means of comparing drugs and devices. New drug therapies are costly, not affordable, and serve as a barrier to the successful treatment of heart failure.