Assessing Costs & Cost-variability Among Enrollees of Health Insurance Programs Utilizing Charlson's Comorbidity Index and Administrative Databases

This study will involve the evaluation of the cost profile of about approximately 241,000 patients (15,000 who are members of the Generations Plus/ Northern Manhattan Health Network AND 226,000 members of a large self insured union trust fund). We will test the hypothesis that as comorbidity scores exceed three-four, patients will have an exponential increase in average yearly cost with a parallel exponential increase in cost variability. We will examine the relationship between comorbidity and health insurance costs and variability in costs among patients enrolled in health plans.