Abstract
INTRODUCTION: This study estimated the direct medical and indirect costs associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diagnoses among U.S. active duty (AD) Army service members (SMs). These cost estimates provide the U.S. Military with a better understanding of the financial burden of COVID-19 and provide a foundation for cost-effectiveness estimates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was approved as Public Health Practice (#17-605) by the U.S. Army Public Health Center, Public Health Review Board. U.S. AD Army SMs with COVID-19 were identified using an Army COVID-19 testing and surveillance database. Encounters for these SMs were captured from medical record where International Classification of Disease Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification code U07.1 was in the first or second diagnostic position. Analyses were conducted on SMs with COVID-19 who either had no healthcare encounters in the Military Health System (MHS); at least one MHS COVID-19 inpatient hospitalization; or at least one MHS outpatient COVID-19 encounter. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) costs captured from the encounters were used to develop direct medical cost estimates. Literature on COVID-19 recovery post-hospitalization, along with the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and outpatient visits from encounters were used to describe the intensity of COVID-19 care. Estimates of the indirect cost of lost duty were based on SMs salary information, along with recovery time, bed days, or outpatient visit time. The indirect cost of limited duty was estimated using the time associated with the Department of Defense (DoD) COVID-19 pandemic mitigation strategies in place when these SMs were identified as positive for COVID-19. RESULTS: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cost estimates were developed for the Army using data from 19,086 SMs identified as positive for COVID-19 between June 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. Direct medical costs, or the amount paid by the DoD to facilities for COVID-19 care, averaged $606 per SM with an encounter. Indirect costs for lost duty or the cost for recovery and the time taken to seek care for COVID-19 averaged $319 per SM, while indirect costs for limited duty or isolation associated with COVID-19 averaged $4,111 per SM or $411 per day. Service members (SMs) with an inpatient hospitalization averaged 4.8 bed days (range 1-43) and 266 recovery hours while SMs who sought outpatient care for COVID-19 averaged two outpatient visits (range 1-60 visits). CONCLUSIONS: The direct medical costs of a COVID-19 encounter in the MHS ($606) are a small portion of the costs for a SM with COVID-19. Indirect costs of lost and limited duty associated with COVID-19 averaged seven times higher ($4,331) and accounted for the vast majority of costs. Recognition of these costs is important especially given that soldiers in the hospital or in quarters being quarantined are complete losses of manpower to the Army. While the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and prevention, treatment, and mitigation efforts continue to evolve, having reliable estimates of direct medical and indirect costs from this study allows the U.S. Army and MHS to better account for the cost of this pandemic for its population.