Value-Based Care Leads to Higher Prices for Surgical Complexities

A study discloses that as a result of value-based care payment reforms, surgical complications now lead to increased prices for both hospitals and 3^rd-party payers.

As a result of recent attempts to bring value-based care to the reimbursement cycle, it is now more significant for both providers and payers to gain an understanding about the link between costs and surgical complications, in accordance to a recent study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Surgical complications are growingly leading to financial penalties and poor performance on quality metrics tied to payments, which are raising prices for both hospitals and third-party payers. As an outcome, both groups are now financially supported to promote surgical quality improvement, claimed a research team from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

“Perhaps the best representation of the financial burden absorbed by hospitals is profit margin,” the team wrote. After conducting a study, researchers analyzed that overall hospital profit margins shrank from 5.8% for patients without complications to 0.1% for patients with complications.