Estimating medical costs of gastroenterological diseases

Table 3 Utilization and costs of diagnostic procedures related to gastroenterological diseases among cohorts (n = 183 976) in 2001: top 20 by total cost

Item of diagnosticproceduresa	No. ofpatients	No. oforders	Total cost
			US $	%	Cum.%
Whole body computer	2 541	3 092	374 106	19.7%	19.7%
tomography (without contrast)
Abdominal sonography	11 132	15 730	349 690	18.4%	38.1%
Whole body computer tomography	1 644	2 106	320 943	16.9%	55.0%
(with/without contrast)
Upper GI panendoscopy	4 693	5 606	247 458	13.0%	68.0%
Serum GPT	25 427	47 523	69 765	3.7%	71.7%
Serum GOT	24 265	45 653	67 676	3.6%	75.2%
Whole body computer	337	437	59 522	3.1%	78.3%
tomography (with contrast)
Colon fiberoscopy	730	780	50 698	2.7%	81.0%
Double-contrast study	421	432	29 421	1.5%	82.6%
of lower GI series
AFP (RIA)	1 461	2 408	28 361	1.5%	84.1%
AFP (EIA)	2 363	3 570	20 86	1.1%	85.2%
Plain abdomen X-ray	2 338	2 856	18 498	1.0%	86.1%
Serum bilirubin, total	6 345	12 553	18 307	1.0%	87.1%
HbsAg (EIA)	3 678	3 999	17 237	0.9%	88.0%
Serum albumin	6 989	14 638	15 522	0.8%	88.8%
CEA (EIA)	856	1 308	15 293	0.8%	89.6%
Alkaline phosphatase	5 686	10 091	14 159	0.7%	90.4%
Upper GI series	296	315	13 347	0.7%	91.1%
CEA (RIA)	647	1 127	13 344	0.7%	91.8%
Sigmoid fiberoscopy	311	327	11 620	0.6%	92.4%
Others			144 922	7.6%	100.0%
Totalb	36 004	210 156	1 900 752	100.0%

^aMagnet resonance imaging (MRI) was excluded from analy-sis because the fee schedule of the National Health Insurance did not differentiate MRI for abdomen from MRI for other body parts.

^bNumbers might not add to totals because of rounding.