News and Commentary
MANAGED CARE January 2010. ©MediMedia USA
Hospital costs for bone marrow transplants shot up 85 percent (from $694 million to $1.3 billion) between 2004 and 2007, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Ten procedures experienced rapid cost increases between 2004 and 2007.
About 75 percent of the rise was attributed to increases in the number of patients who underwent these procedures and 25 percent to higher costs per case treated.
Besides bone marrow transplantation, the procedures with the most rapid increases in hospital costs included:
- Open surgery for noncancerous enlarged prostate — up 69 percent to $1 billion
- Aortic valve resection or replacement — up 38.5 percent to $1.9 billion
- Cancer chemotherapy — up 33 percent to $2.6 billion
- Spinal fusion — up 29.5 percent to $8.9 billion
- Lobectomy — up 29 percent to $1.8 billion
- Incision and drainage of skin and other tissues — up 29 percent to $1 billion
- Knee surgery — up 27.5 percent to $9.2 billion
- Nephrostomy — up 25 percent to $683 million
- Mastectomy — up 24 percent to $660 million
MANAGED CARE January 2010. ©MediMedia USA