
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994                   TAG: 9408180105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ALZHEIMER'S COST IS HIGH

Caring for each American diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease today will cost more than $213,000 - on top of other medical expenses - over the patient's remaining few years of life.

That's the grim prediction of the first study to nail down the costs of the devastating disease that gradually destroys its victims' brain cells.

``Alzheimer's disease is draining the resources of this country and its citizens at a greater rate than even we thought,'' said Edward Truschke, president of the Alzheimer's Association.

The study, published in today's American Journal of Public Health, said Alzheimer's costs the nation $82.7 billion a year in medical expenses, the round-the-clock care its victims require and lost productivity.

That makes Alzheimer's the nation's third most expensive disease, after heart disease and cancer, said study co-author Joel Hay, an economist at the University of Southern California.

And Medicaid, the nation's health plan for the poor, spent more on Alzheimer's in 1991 - $5.7 billion - than the total cost of treating AIDS patients that year - $4.2 billion, Hay said.

The Alzheimer's Association long has estimated that the disease costs more than $80 billion a year.

But Hay nailed down the individual expenses that burden Alzheimer's families. He found that in 1991, caring for a single patient for the usual four years between diagnosis and death costs society $173,932 - on top of any other health problems.

Today, medical inflation has pushed that tab to $213,732, Hay said.

``The sad thing about Alzheimer's disease is two-thirds of the costs are indirect, so by definition they're not covered by any insurance plan,'' he said.

But Hay's numbers, ``while staggering, probably are conservative,'' Truschke said. Because doctors now diagnose Alzheimer's earlier, some patients live with it for eight to 10 years.

And while Hay counted 1.6 million patients, the association believes the true number is closer to 4 million.

There is no test for Alzheimer's, which is diagnosed by painstakingly ruling out all other diseases. There is no cure, and only one drug, Tacrine, is approved to help slow the progress of the disease.

Because little can be done medically, direct medical costs average only about $14,140, the study said.

But indirect costs, primarily from round-the-clock care, devastate patients, who spend about $40,000 a year on a nursing home or $20,900 a year for in-home care, Hay said.

In-home care usually is provided by an unpaid relative. So while the costs to society are counted at $20,900 - the average a family would pay for a visiting health aide - the personal costs can be much higher.

by CNB