Cost Savings from Regionalizing Cardiac Procedures
Author Information
Author(s): Ho Vivian, Petersen Laura A
Primary Institution: Baker Institute, Rice University
Hypothesis
Are higher procedure volumes for CABG surgery or PCI associated with lower costs per patient?
Conclusion
Higher volumes were associated with lower costs per procedure, but the total potential savings from regionalizing cardiac procedures is relatively minor.
Supporting Evidence
- A 10% increase in PCI procedure volume lowered costs per patient by 0.7%.
- A 10% increase in CABG volume was associated with a 2.8% reduction in average costs.
- The predicted savings from regionalizing all PCI procedures amounted to only 1.1% of total costs.
- The cost savings for CABG were estimated to be only 3.5%.
Takeaway
If more patients go to hospitals that do a lot of heart surgeries, it can save some money, but not a lot.
Methodology
Cost regressions with hospital-specific dummy variables were used to measure cost reductions associated with increasing hospital volume.
Potential Biases
Potential biases from using accounting data to reflect economic costs and the exclusion of certain hospitals from the analysis.
Limitations
The study could not estimate potential years of life gained by regionalization and may not have captured all PCI procedures performed in outpatient settings.
Participant Demographics
The study included patients undergoing PCI and CABG from a nationally representative sample of hospitals in the US.
Statistical Information
P-Value
0.012
Confidence Interval
(-0.124, -0.016)
Statistical Significance
p = 0.012
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Want to read the original?
Access the complete publication on the publisher's website