Boston children's hospital community asthma initiative: Five-year cost analyses of a home visiting program.

Objective: To evaluate the costs and benefits of the Boston Children's Hospital Community Asthma Initiative (CAI) through reduction of Emergency Department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for the full pilot-phase program participants.

Methods: A cost-benefit analyses was conducted using hospital administrative data to determine an adjusted Return on Investment (ROI): on all 268 patients enrolled in the CAI program during the 33-month pilot program phase of CAI intervention between October 1, 2005 and June 30, 2008 using a comparison group of 818 patients from a similar cohort in neighboring ZIP codes without CAI intervention. Cost data through June 30, 2013 were used to examine cost changes and calculate an adjusted ROI over a 5-year post-intervention period.

Community Asthma Initiative to Improve Health Outcomes and Reduce Disparities Among Children with Asthma.

Black and Hispanic children are hospitalized with complications of asthma at much higher rates than white children. The Boston Children's Hospital Community Asthma Initiative (CAI) provides asthma case management and home visits for children from low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts, to address racial/ethnic health disparities in pediatric asthma outcomes. CAI objectives were to evaluate 1) case management data by parent/guardian report for health outcomes and 2) hospital administrative data for comparison between intervention and comparison groups.