Complex intervention for MS patients in Germany – can it be cost-saving for the society?

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic degenerative neurological disease with high prevalence and economic impact on the patient and the society. The innovative care project MSnetWork provides services additional to the standard care of MS patients in order to reduce cost of sickness days. This paper calculates the life-time cost of MS in Germany and compares them with the intervention cost MSnetWork in order to determine whether that intervention can be cost-saving. We calculated the process cost of the intervention of MSnetWork. Furthermore, we developed a system dynamics model to determine the life-time costs of MS from a societal perspective, both as a present value (at age of onset) and as an annuity. We compare the total life-time cost with and without intervention in order to determine whether MSnetWork can be cost-saving. The average cost of implementing all measures of MSnetWork was EUR 1212.83 (SD = 692.34) per patient per year. Based on the life-time cost model, a patient with MS costs about 21,000€ more per year than a comparable member of the statutory health insurance fund without MS. The indirect cost is higher than the direct cost. The interventions of MSnetWork reduce the indirect cost substantially. The economic cost of MS is high. Thus, interventions to reduce disability can certainly be cost-saving. However, an intervention cannot be considered cost-saving per se. It has to be planned precisely and in detail. The results indicate that the MSnetWork intervention can be cost-saving.