OBJECTIVES: Lichen planus is a dermatological disease characterized by itchy reddish-purple polygon-shaped skin lesions. The aim of our study was to calculate the annual health insurance treatment cost of lichen planus in Hungary.

METHODS: The data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), the only health care financing agency in Hungary. We analyzed the number of patients and the health insurance treatment cost 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. Patients with lichen planus were identified with the following codes of the International Classification of Diseases 10^threvision: L43.

RESULTS: The number of patient underwent outpatient care was 3,013 (59.8 % women and 40.2 % men) with a mean age of 54.90 years (women: 57.56 years; men: 50.94 years). Number of patients admitted to in-patient hospital care was 145 (75.9 % women and 24.1 % men) with a mean age of 61.48 years (women: 64.42 years; men: 52.23 years). For the treatment of patients with lichen planusin 2017 the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration spent 57.282 million Hungarian Forint (HUF) which equals 185.255 Euro (EUR). Major cost drivers were acute inpatient care (35.6 % of total health insurance costs), outpatient care (28.1 %) and pharmaceuticals (26.8 %) CONCLUSIONS: Lichen planus represent a significant burden for the Hungarian health insurance system. The occurrence of the disease is more common in women both in outpatient and inpatient care. There is a significant difference (outpatient: 6.61 years; inpatient: 12.19 years) in the onset of the disease between women and men.