Journal of

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Background and Aim: Care of patients with skin diseases may lead to high financial costs and burden on health system for societies and family members. In this study, we decided to evaluate the costs of treatments of patients admitted in the dermatology ward of Afzalipour Hospital, Kerman.

Methods: This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study performed from 2011 to 2017 on patients admitted in the dermatologic ward of Afzalipour Hospital. Demographic features of patients, duration of admission, cost of treatment, number and type of prescribed drugs as well as the patients’ and insurance organizations’ shares of the cost were recorded.

Results: In this study, 940 patients were evaluated for six years. The mean age of the patients was 38.05±22.35 years and most of them were female. The mean duration of admission was 8.42±2.54 days. The insurance companies’ and patients’ shares of the fees were 93.8% and 6.2%, respectively. The highest costs belonged to prescribed drugs (37.9%) and hoteling (30.3%). The most common prescribed drugs were antihistamines (33.1%), topical steroids (27.7%) and systemic steroids (24.5%). The mean number of prescribed drugs in each admission was 6.30±4.02 (range
0-20). Patients suffering from Erythema and urticaria had the total highest costs of admission (81,360,000 Iran Rials).

Conclusion: In this study, the most frequent skin diseases were infectious and papulosquamous diseases. The highest and lowest cost of admission belonged to prescribed drugs and consultations, respectively. Also, the highest cost of admission belonged to patients with erythema and urticaria.

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Background and Aim: Psoriasis is a systemic and non-transmissible chronic inflammatory autoimmune skin disease that about 2-3% of Iranians suffer from it. Cost of management and budgeting and planning for the treatment of patients with psoriasis requires accurate information. The present study estimates the direct and indirect costs for one-year treatment of patients admitted in Razi Dermatology Hospital.

Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, treatment costs of 170 patients with psoriasis, including direct (medical and non-medical) and indirect costs were evaluated by census method and using a researcher-made checklist, from October 2017 to October 2018. The fee was collected through reviewing patients' bills in the hospital information system and through telephone interviews with patients.

Results: The average cost of one year was 9037480 Tomans ($ 758), of which direct cost of treatment was 90.22% (8178681 Tomans) and indirect cost of treatment was 9.78% (858799 Tomans). The highest cost of treatment was related to pharmaceutical services with 5825233 Tomans. Also, the total direct medical cost was equal to 7069890 Tomans, of which 62% was the insurance share and 38% was the patient share. The findings showed that injecting biological drugs and accommodation had a significant effect on the direct cost of treatment. Supplementary insurance and accommodation variables also affect out-of-pocket costs.

Conclusion: Drugs made up most of the costs. The high price of biologics and the low coverage of these drugs by insurance companies have caused many economic problems for these patients. According to the findings of this study, it seems necessary to review the more complete insurance coverage of these drugs as well as the use of charitable assistance to cover part of the cost for treatment.