ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE Community-Acquired Pneumonia Episode Costs by Age and Risk in Commercially Insured US Adults Aged ‡50 Years

The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) causes substantial clinical and economic burden. While several studies have reported the cost to treat CAP, there is little information on the cost to treat by age, risk profile, and hospitalization in US adults aged C50 years. Objective To quantify the cost, from a payer perspective, of treating CAP at the episode level, stratified by age, risk profile, and hospitalization. Methods A retrospective study of claims data from a large US health plan (1 January 2006–31 December 2008) was conducted. Patients aged C50 years having at least one medical claim with a primary diagnosis for pneumonia were identified. A CAP episode was define