Out-of-Pocket Costs for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a growing epidemic in the United States. In 2015 alone, it affected 30.2 million people. Additionally, the cost of managing type 2 diabetes continues to rise. This condition requires long-term management, and the out-of-pocket costs for type 2 diabetes are not well-characterized. The objective of this study was to understand the magnitude of out-of-pocket costs for type 2 diabetes.

Methods: We identified studies in the PubMed databank that were published between 2000 and 2017. From these studies, we examined the amount spent on out-of-pocket costs by type 2 diabetes patients.

Results: Across the ten studies examined, we found a cost range of $143 per year to $2210 per year, a mean cost of $2063 per year, and a median cost of $435 per year. There is a wide range in cost of out-of-pocket costs for people with diabetes.

Conclusion: Clearly, there is not a consistent cost measurement through all of the studies. Some of the variation is accounted for by different definitions of out-of-pocket cost across the studies. To help better inform patients and healthcare policy decision-makers accurately assessing out-of-pocket cost per year in patients with diabetes, there needs to be a consistent definition of out-of-pocket costs, as well as a consistent way to measure out-of-pocket costs.