Do prices reflect the costs of cardiac surgery in the elderly?

INTRODUCTION: Payment for cardiac surgery in Portugal is based on a contract agreement between hospitals and the health ministry. Our aim was to compare the prices paid according to this contract agreement with calculated costs in a population of patients aged ≥65 years undergoing cardiac surgery in one hospital department.

METHODS: Data on 250 patients operated between September 2011 and September 2012 were prospectively collected. The procedures studied were coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) (n=67), valve surgery (n=156) and combined CABG and valve surgery (n=27). Costs were calculated by two methods: micro-costing when feasible and mean length of stay otherwise. Price information was provided by the hospital administration and calculated using the hospital's mean case-mix.

RESULTS: Thirty-day mortality was 3.2%. Mean EuroSCORE I was 5.97 (standard deviation [SD] 4.5%), significantly lower for CABG (p<0.01). Mean intensive care unit stay was 3.27 days (SD 4.7) and mean hospital stay was 9.92 days (SD 6.30), both significantly shorter for CABG. Calculated costs for CABG were €6539.17 (SD 3990.26), for valve surgery €8289.72 (SD 3319.93) and for combined CABG and valve surgery €11 498.24 (SD 10 470.57). The payment for each patient was €4732.38 in 2011 and €4678.66 in 2012 based on the case-mix index of the hospital group, which was 2.06 in 2011 and 2.21 in 2012; however, the case-mix in our sample was 6.48 in 2011 and 6.26 in 2012.

CONCLUSION: The price paid for each patient was lower than the calculated costs. Prices would be higher than costs if the case-mix of the sample had been used. Costs were significantly lower for CABG.