Cost evaluation of an innovative outreach clinic across social insurance codes in rural Northern Germany — A routine data analysis

A community outreach clinic was established in 2013 in a rural part of Germany to counsel and better integrate patients with mental health disorders or clients with psychosocial problems into the healthcare and complementary social assistance system. In a pilot study, we aimed to evaluate the costs of the integration assistance system after the outreach clinic was opened, the number of visits and the trend in the costs of the social assistance system of the federal state. Anonymised secondary cost data were used to evaluate the costs associated with the integration assistance receivers before (2010-2012) and after the establishment of the outreach clinic (2013-2015). Total costs were descriptively compared between the intervention group (consultation in the outreach clinic), the non-referral group, and a propensity score-matched control group for the years 2013-2015. To monitor the counselling activity, we used anonymised data on visits to the outreach clinic between 2013 and 2015. Data from 50 clients in the outreach clinic and 678 non-referral clients were analysed. The total costs of the integration assistance for the years 2013-2015 amounted to EUR 21,516 (95% CI 14,513-28,518) and EUR 28,464 (25,789-31,140) respectively. Propensity score matching of the controls resulted in equalised total costs for the years 2013 through 2015 for clients (n = 50, EUR 21,516 (14,513-28,518)) and controls (n = 250, EUR 21,725 (18,214-25,234)). The total number of integration assistance receivers in the district was lower than the average for the federal state. The number of consultations at the outpatient clinic steadily increased from 146 in 2013 to 1,090 in 2015. Counselling in the outreach clinic might help reduce the placement of clients into integration assistance, including supported housing, and slow the expected cost trend. However, counselling failed to lower total costs in the integration assistance service, possibly due to the selection of more severe cases.