Skip to main content

Effect of influenza vaccination on health care utilization and costs among commercially insured individuals

ByEllyn Russo, and David Williams
19 February 2021

The report discusses an analysis of health care utilization and costs for more than 16 million continuously enrolled members with commercial health insurance over two influenza seasons to better understand differences associated with vaccination against influenza. It uses a claims-based retrospective matched case-control study to evaluate the effect of the flu vaccinations. Our findings demonstrated a decrease in influenza hospitalizations of 19% for vaccinated individuals during the 2017-2018 influenza season, and 15% for 2016-2017. The report also shows significant reductions in overall influenza-like illness utilization and savings in allowed costs for vaccinated individuals.

This report was commissioned by Aetna.


About the Author(s)

Ellyn Russo

David Williams

We’re here to help