Dive Brief:
- A new study by the AHRQ has found that although 29% of all U.S. hospitalizations in 2011 included a surgical procedure, hospitalizations involving surgery accounted for nearly half of all hospital costs.
- The study found that in 2011, heart valve procedures were the most expensive operations performed in the U.S., followed by coronary artery bypass procedures, small bowel resections and cardiac pacemaker or defibrillator procedures.
- The recently published statistical brief found that hospital stays including surgery were 2.5 times more expensive as stays for conditions without surgery.
Dive Insight:
It's hardly surprising the surgery is driving revenue in hospitals. Hospital surgical pricing has seen a great deal of inflation. The mean price for hospital stays involving surgery rose 19.4% since 2007, according to the AHRQ study. This is certainly a strong motivation for medically unnecessary procedures -- and a trend we need to watch very closely.