The High Cost of Alzheimer’s

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The High Cost of Alzheimer’s by Carolyn Dean, MD Share Email Print - The High Cost of Alzheimer’s Tags No tags are currently set for this article. To add a new tag Log in or register Alzheimer’s has high physical & emotional cost Alzheimer’s is an extremely expensive disease Early treatment of Alzheimer’s is key The tremendous physical and emotional cost of the disease to Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families has been known for decades. There is also, however, a financial cost of the disease. Finally, in 1998 and again in 2002, reports were commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Association on the costs to U.S. businesses. Both studies were shocking. “Alzheimer’s Disease: The Costs to U.S. Businesses,” authored by Ross Koppel, Ph.D., of the Social Research Corporation and the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, found that the 2002 Alzheimer’s cost to U.S. businesses would be in excess of $61 billion. To put that number into perspective, this amount is equal to the net profits of the top ten Fortune 500 companies and exactly double the amount that was calculated in the 1998 report. The costs to businesses to cover medical insurance and disability for workers with Alzheimer’s was $24.6 billion. The costs incurred because workers must take on the tremendous responsibilities as family caregivers was $36.5 billion due to absenteeism, productivity losses, and replacement costs. This seems like a huge amount of money until you realize that 70 percent of people with Alzheimer’s live at home, where almost 75 percent of their care is organized and provided by family and friends. The remaining 25 percent, averaging $12,500 per year, is paid for by families out of their own pocket for private home care. It seems like U.S. business is subsidizing home care for Alzheimer’s sufferers, but is it a less expensive option than nursing home care? The average cost for nursing home care is $42,000 per year with a high range of $70,000 per year in some areas of the country. The Cost of Treating Alzheimer’s Disease Will Continue to Rise In a 1994 report from the American Journal of Public Health on the economical and social costs of Alzheimer’s, it was the third most expensive disease in the United States after heart disease and cancer. They reported that the average lifetime cost of care for an Alzheimer’s patient is $174,000 with a two to twenty year life expectancy after diagnosis. This figure does not include the loss of wages both for the Alzheimer’s sufferer or the caregiver. The costs to Medicare were calculated for the decade beginning in 2000. For Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s, the 2010 costs are expected to increase 54.5 percent, from $31.9 billion in 2000 to $49.3 billion in 2010. Medicaid expenditures for residential dementia care will have an even higher increase of 80 percent, from $18.2 billion to $33 billion in the same time period.
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by Carolyn Dean, MD

Alzheimer’s has high physical & emotional cost
Alzheimer’s is an extremely expensive disease
Early treatment of Alzheimer’s is key

The tremendous physical and emotional cost of the disease to Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families has been known for decades. There is also, however, a financial cost of the disease. Finally, in 1998 and again in 2002, reports were commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Association on the costs to U.S. businesses. Both studies were shocking. “Alzheimer’s Disease: The Costs to U.S. Businesses,” authored by Ross Koppel, Ph.D., of the Social Research Corporation and the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, found that the 2002 Alzheimer’s cost to U.S. businesses would be in excess of $61 billion.

To put that number into perspective, this amount is equal to the net profits of the top ten Fortune 500 companies and exactly double the amount that was calculated in the 1998 report. The costs to businesses to cover medical insurance and disability for workers with Alzheimer’s was $24.6 billion. The costs incurred because workers must take on the tremendous responsibilities as family caregivers was $36.5 billion due to absenteeism, productivity losses, and replacement costs.

This seems like a huge amount of money until you realize that 70 percent of people with Alzheimer’s live at home, where almost 75 percent of their care is organized and provided by family and friends. The remaining 25 percent, averaging $12,500 per year, is paid for by families out of their own pocket for private home care. It seems like U.S. business is subsidizing home care for Alzheimer’s sufferers, but is it a less expensive option than nursing home care? The average cost for nursing home care is $42,000 per year with a high range of $70,000 per year in some areas of the country.

The Cost of Treating Alzheimer’s Disease Will Continue to Rise

In a 1994 report from the American Journal of Public Health on the economical and social costs of Alzheimer’s, it was the third most expensive disease in the United States after heart disease and cancer. They reported that the average lifetime cost of care for an Alzheimer’s patient is $174,000 with a two to twenty year life expectancy after diagnosis. This figure does not include the loss of wages both for the Alzheimer’s sufferer or the caregiver.

The costs to Medicare were calculated for the decade beginning in 2000. For Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s, the 2010 costs are expected to increase 54.5 percent, from $31.9 billion in 2000 to $49.3 billion in 2010. Medicaid expenditures for residential dementia care will have an even higher increase of 80 percent, from $18.2 billion to $33 billion in the same time period.