OBJECTIVES: To evaluate healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and cost of care with different IV iron treatments in HF patients diagnosed with iron deficiency/iron deficiency anemia (ID/IDA).

METHODS: A retrospective observational study was conducted using a real-world claims database from 2007/01 to 2022/09. Baseline and follow-up periods were 12 months before and after the date of the first IV iron claim. Patients were included if they were age ≥65 years, diagnosed with HF and ID/IDA, continuously enrolled and had an IV iron treatment as the index treatment. Patients were excluded if they had any IV iron treatments at the baseline or multiple IV iron treatments in the follow-up period. IV iron treatments included ferric carboxymaltose (FCM), ferumoxytol (FM), sodium ferric gluconate complex in sucrose (SFGCS), iron dextran and iron sucrose. Descriptive statistics and adjusted generalized linear regression (negative binomial distribution for HCRU and gamma distribution with log link for cost) were used to compare outcomes between FCM and the other IV iron treatments.

RESULTS: FCM had shorter HF-related hospital inpatient length of stay than FM (IRR=0.38, p=0.06), SFGCS (IRR=0.18, p=0.02), iron dextran (IRR=0.25, p=0.03) and iron sucrose (IRR=0.29, p=0.01). FCM had lower HF-related medical cost than FM (cost ratio=0.93, p=0.34), SFGCS (ratio=0.46, p<0.001), iron dextran (ratio=0.65, p<0.001) and iron sucrose (ratio=0.67, p<0.0001). FCM had fewer HF-related medical visits than FM (incidence rate ratio [IRR]=0.99, p=0.90), SFGCS (IRR=0.73, p=0.03) and iron sucrose (IRR=0.87, p=0.14), mainly due to lower HCRU from inpatient, skilled nursing facility, emergency room, outpatient and physician office.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients on FCM had less HF-related HCRU and cost and shorter inpatient length of stay, compared to other IV iron treatments.