OBJECTIVES: This research aimed to compare disease-agnostic healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and associated costs in key countries. Resources containing RWE-based data were researched to estimate HCRU benchmarks.

METHODS: A targeted literature review was conducted across PubMed and public datasets, including the OECD and the WHO. English-language sources reporting population-based, country-level, and disease-agnostic HCRU and costs were identified.

RESULTS: Of the 45 sources screened, 8 were included in the analysis. The HCRU and cost data in the published literature were found to be non-standardized and diverse. The OECD provided estimates of total healthcare cost per capita in France ($6,115), Germany ($7,383), Italy ($4,038), Spain ($3,718), UK ($5,387), and US ($12,318).

The OECD also reported mean length of stay (LOS) in days for acute care: France (5.5), Germany (7.4), Italy (7.5), Spain (6.4), UK (6.2), and US (5.4) (2018-2021) and mean number of physician office visits: France (5.8), Germany (9.8), Italy (10.4), and Spain (7.3).

The European Society for Emergency Medicine reported emergency department (ED) visits per 1,000 habitants per year in France (305), Germany (93), Italy (339), Spain (595), and the UK (405). For 2020-2021, the CDC reported mean ED visits of 405 per 1,000 individuals and physician office visits of 3.2 per capita in the U.S.

US claims data were also used to analyze HCRU. One study reported 0.43 ED visits, 3.77 physician office visits, and 5.2 days LOS, on average, for a random sample of 10 million US insurance-enrolled patients in 2021.

CONCLUSIONS: Limited sources exist to compare RWE-based HCRU benchmarks across the US and EU5, to understand the economic burden on healthcare systems. More accessible benchmarked data for disease-agnostic or general populations, along with standardized country-level HCRU datasets, are needed to facilitate health economic evaluations and enable cross-country comparisons, particularly in EU5 markets.