Costs & Cost Controls
ACA costs rising
Editor's Note Over the next 10 years, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will cost $1.34 trillion, which is $136 billion more than the Congressional Budget Office predicted a year ago, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The hike in costs is mostly a result of higher-than-expected enrollment in the expanded Medicaid…
ECRI Institute and London School of Economics partner on device pricing project
Editor's Note ECRI Institute announced on March 17 that is collaborating with the London School of Economics in a project examining medical device pricing across different countries. Medical devices are estimated to account for 6% to 7% of total health expenditure in the US and European countries, but little is…
Committee saves over $1 million through cost conscious initiatives
Creating a “Cost Conscious Culture Committee” helped Maine Medical Center (MMC) in Portland shave more than $1.8 million in operating costs from the beginning of 2014 to the end of 2015. Not only that, but during 2015, MMC’s perioperative services leaders were also involved in a $40 million expansion project…
Advance preparation tends to waste many absorbable hemostatic agents
Results of a recent survey suggest that a great deal of unnecessary product waste could be avoided if OR nurses changed their approach to using absorbable hemostatic agents. The survey, administered electronically to 200 US registered nurses in late 2014, found that 62% of respondents prepared absorbable hemostatic agents before…
Study: Performing total knees in high-volume hospitals could save billions
Editor's Note If all total knee replacements were performed at high-volume hospitals, it could save the US healthcare system between $2.5 and $4 billion annually by 2030, finds a study presented March 4 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. In this study of nearly 90,000…
Study doesn’t support capnography for colonoscopy
Editor's Note Capnographic monitoring during outpatient colonoscopy with moderate sedation increased costs significantly and did not improve patient safety or satisfaction, this study finds. The analysis included 966 patients (465 without and 501 with capnography) who underwent colonoscopy at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. Patients and nurses reported…
Nursing work environment linked to better surgical value
Hospitals with better nursing work environments and above-average staffing levels were associated with better surgical value (ie, lower mortality with similar costs) in this study, especially for higher-risk patients. Past studies have shown that hospitals with better nursing work environments provide better quality of care, but less is known about…
PSH initiative demonstrates measurable impact on quality, costs
Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists and Premiere on February 9 announced results from the first phase of the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) learning collaborative. The collaborative included 44 healthcare organizations that piloted and evaluated the PSH model from July 2014 through November 2015. Many members of the collaborative…
Reliability of cost profiles for surgery based on Medicare data
Editor's Note Medicare data on payments for inpatient surgery are a reliable measure of hospital costs for commonly performed procedures, but are less reliable for lower volume procedures, this study finds. With increased emphasis on shifting risk from payers to providers through bundled payments and accountable care organizations, hospitals are…
Study: Implementation costs of ERAS program
Editor's Note Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs have led to reduction in length of stay and improved outcomes. This study finds that investment in an ERAS program also leads to financial savings. Despite positive results from international ERAS programs, the US has been slow to adopt such programs, in…
Free Daily News
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- New studies, surgical feats advance organ transplant medicine
- Commentary: Cyberattacks threaten financial survival of surgical practices
- Tariffs strain supply chains, split medical manufacturing community
- Study: Systemic gender bias embedded in surgical practice
- Literature review: Endoscope disinfection failures highlight need for stronger sterilization practices
- Study: GLP-1 drugs heighten risk of gastric residue but not perioperative pulmonary aspiration
- OAS CAHPS compliance soars to 96% among ASCs, vendor satisfaction also improves
- Knee surgical robot market set to surge, projected to reach $5.9B by 2032