Costs Associated With a 90-Day Episode of Care After Single-Level Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion.

BACKGROUND

Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) is a commonly performed surgical procedure for the management of degenerative lumbar spine pathologic entities. Despite an increasing number of ALIFs performed nationally, to the best of our knowledge, no study has evaluated the costs associated with the 90-day episode of care postoperatively.

METHODS

The 2007-2016 Humana Administrative Claims data set, a national database of commercial and Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries, was queried using Current Procedural Terminology code 22558 for patients who had undergone single-level ALIF. The 90-day costs were defined using the following categories: facility, surgeon, anesthesia, other hospitalization costs and services, radiology, office visits, physical therapy/rehabilitation, emergency department visits, and readmissions.

RESULTS

A total of 365 ALIF procedures (MA, n = 244; commercial, n = 121) were included in the analysis. The average 90-day cost of single-level ALIF was $25,568 and $51,741 for the MA and commercial enrollees, respectively. The major proportion of 90-day costs was attributable to facility reimbursement (74%-76%), followed by surgeon costs (9%-11%). Postacute care (i.e., office visits and physical therapy/rehabilitation) was not a major driver of the 90-day costs, consisting of only 0.7%-1.3% of the total 90-day reimbursement. Of patients who had required readmission, the costs of the readmission increased the average 90-day costs by 65%-66%.

CONCLUSIONS

Facility costs were the major drivers of a stipulated 90-day reimbursement for patients undergoing single-level ALIF. Health policy makers and providers can use these data to better understand the distribution of costs in a stipulated bundled-payment model for ALIFs and allow them to identify areas in which cost reduction strategies can be performed.