May 10 More on Population Health

HIMSSCast: It's spring, and for 80 million of us, that means allergy season

Environment allergies are likely the costliest conditions in the U.S. due to the indirect costs of missed work and low productivity, a doctor says.

Susan Morse, Executive Editor

Photo: Tetra/Getty Images

An estimated 80 million people in this country suffer from some type of allergy and up to 40% of Americans have environmental allergies caused by substances such as hay fever, pet dander and dust mites.

These common conditions can often be treated by over-the-counter remedies, prescription drugs and shots to build up resistance.

But more than a nuisance, allergies – and their counterpart asthma – cause more than 1% of ER visits annually. The indirect costs associated with missed work, missed school and overall lack of productivity make environmental allergies the costliest condition in the United States, said Dr. Shyam Joshi, chief scientific officer at Nectar Allergy Center in New York City.

Joshi, who has seen much advancement in treatment over the last 10 years, has hope for future improvements.

"It's a great time to be in the allergy world," Joshi said. "We're finding a lot of new treatments that we didn't have any time before this."

For more, please listen to Joshi's discussion with Susan Morse, executive editor of Healthcare Finance News.

Talking Points:

In general, spring to early summer is peak pollination season across the United States. But in the southern and other warmer areas of the country, allergy season starts in February and March.
Parts of Texas are an outlier for winter allergies due to cedar fever, a reaction to the mountain cedar tree pollination.
Fall is ragweed season.
Atopic disease, also called A to P, involves four or five different conditions with the same inflammatory pattern within the body. These include environmental allergies, asthma, food allergies and eczema.
The biggest cost for allergies and asthma is the medication. Many allergy sufferers get regular shots to build up immunity
Sublingual liquid applied daily gives the same immunity benefit as allergy shots, but in the United States, reimbursement is complicated.
In Europe, more doctors use sublingual therapy because of the centralized healthcare system. In the United States, shots are reimbursed at a good rate.
Some sublingual tablets are FDA approved for specific pollens such as ragweed, grass pollen and dust mites.
Food and venom allergies can cause full blown anaphylaxis, which can require an ER visit.
Climate change has led to a longer and warmer pollination season.
The hypothesis that living in cleaner environments has led to more allergies is partially true. Studies of Amish and Mennonite populations have shown that exposure to farm animals affects the balance of microbiomes in the body, resulting in lower rates of asthma development.