OBJECTIVES: Hypertensive heart disease is a common disease resulting in significant health insurance cost and societal burden in many developed countries.The aim of our study was to calculate the annual health insurance treatment cost of hypertensive heart disease in Hungary.

METHODS: The data derive from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), the only health care financing agency in Hungary. We analyzed the health insurance treatment cost and the number of patients for the year 2017. The following cost categories were included into the study: out-patient care, laboratory diagnostics, medical imaging, acute in-patient care, chronic in-patient care and drugs. Hypertensive heart disease was identified with the following codes of the International Classification of Diseases 10^threvision: I11.

RESULTS: The number of patient underwent outpatient care was 43,194 (54.4 % women and 45.6 % men) with a mean age of 67.79 years (women: 69.44 years; men: 65.83 years). Number of patients admitted to in-patient hospital care was 29,598 (55.3 % women and 44.7 % men) with a higher mean age of 71.24 years (women: 73.39 years; men:68.57 years). For the treatment of patients with hypertensive heart disease in 2017 the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration spent 8.097 billion Hungarian Forint (HUF) which equals 26.189 million Euros (EUR). Major cost drivers were acute inpatient care (86.7 %), chronic inpatient care (5.8 %) and out-patient care (3.7 %).

CONCLUSIONS: Hypertensive heart disease represents a significant burden for the health insurance system. Proportion of women is higher both in outpatient and inpatient care. There is a significant difference (outpatient: 3.6 years; inpatient: 4.8 years) in the onset of the disease between women and men. Reimbursement of acute inpatient care is the major cost driver for hypertensive heart disease in Hungary.