Direct health care charges for new-onset pediatric epilepsy

Youth with epilepsy and their families experience considerable burdens, including behavioral health symptoms, social isolation, learning problems, difficulties adjusting to their illness, and daily management of epilepsy.^1,2 Rising health care costs and policy changes at the national and state level have necessitated a closer look at another source of burden—health care costs associated with epilepsy. For example, Yoon et al.³ examined medical expenditures from 1996 to 2004 and revealed that annual expenditures for youth with epilepsy (n = 770) were $6,379, compared to $1,032 for youth without epilepsy. Cramer et al.⁴ examined a 2007–2009 claims database of 2,127 children <12 years old with epilepsy and found that youth with uncontrolled epilepsy (those prescribed additional antiepileptic drugs [AEDs] in the past year) encountered more hospitalizations (30.1% vs 12.0%) and greater overall ($30,343 vs $18,206) and epilepsy-related ($16,894 vs $7,979) costs than youth with stable epilepsy (same AEDs for the past year). Epilepsy charges per se accounted for a little less than half of the overall costs, suggesting that other factors add considerably to the cost of providing care for youth with epilepsy.⁴