Objectives: Direct and indirect costs of endometriosis can be substantial for both the individual and the health insurance provider(s) – especially since the treatment of endometriosis often requires costly inpatient care resources. The aim our study was to determine the annual health insurance treatment cost of ovarian endometriosis in Hungary.

Methods: Data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), for the year 2019. Data analysed included annual health insurance costs, patient numbers and cost distribution calculated for age groups. The following cost categories were included into the study: general practice care, home care, in- and outpatient care, medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and medical aids. Patients with ovarian endometriosis were identified with the following code of the International Classification of Diseases 10^th revision: N80.1.

Results: In 2019, the NHIFA spent 133.12 million Hungarian Forints (HUF) on the treatment of patients with ovarian endometriosis (458.01 thousand American Dollars [USD], or 409.16 thousand Euros [EUR]). The highest patient numbers were in outpatient care (1,608 women). Acute inpatient care (70.7% of total health insurance costs), use of pharmaceuticals (16.3%) and general practice care (5.1%) were the main cost drivers, while all other forms of medical care amounted to 8.0% in women. Annual health care treatment cost per patient was 82,786 HUF (285 USD/254 EUR) according to patient numbers of outpatient care. The highest annual health insurance costs were found in the ‘20-29’ and ‘30-39’ age groups.

Conclusions: Acute inpatient care utilisation was the major cost driver, which was 4.33 times higher than use of pharmaceuticals, 13.88 times as much as general practice care costs in 2019. In order to be able to reduce expenditures linked to ovarian - and other forms of – endometriosis, identifying risk factors and timely treatment are crucial.