Becker's Healthcare August 8, 2024
The vertical integration of physician groups and health systems is resulting in a push to procedures to hospital outpatient departments over ASCs, driving Medicare and patient out-of-pocket costs up, according to a study published July 25 in Science Direct.
The study analyzed data from 2013 to 2019 from 1 million arthroscopy and 10 million colonoscopy procedures in the U.S. Medicare population to determine how vertical integration changes services.
Here are five key notes:
1. The report found that following vertical integration, there is a 5 percentage point increase in the use of HOPDs instead of ASCs for arthroscopy and a 6.8 percentage point increase for colonoscopies.
2. The report also estimated that vertical integration leads to 3.1...
Today's Sponsors
Today's Sponsor