Hospitalization Cost Offset of a Hostility Intervention for Coronary Heart Disease Patients

The authors evaluated hospitalization cost offset of hostility management group therapy for patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) from a previously published randomized controlled trial (Y. Gidron, K. Davidson, & I. Bata, 1999). Twenty-six male patients with myocardial infarction or unstable angina were randomized to either 2 months of cognitive-behavioral group therapy or an information (control) session. Therapy patients had a shorter average length of hospital stay (n = 13, M = 0.38 days, SD = 0.96) than did control patients (n = 13, M = 2.15 days, SD = 2.6), t(15.2) = -2.29, p = .04, over 6 months following therapy. The average hospitalization costs were significantly lower for therapy patients (M = $245, SD = $627) than for control patients (M = $1,333, SD = $1,609), t(15.6) = -2.27, p = .04. The cost-offset ratio is calculated by dividing the $1,088 of hospitalization savings by the $560 of therapy expense ($1.00:$1.94), indicating that for every $1.00 spent on therapy, there is an approximate savings of $2.00 in hospitalization costs in the following 6 months. These findings support the hospitalization cost offset of hostility-reduction in CHD patients.