By Jim Burger
The more financial responsibility patients share with their insurers, and the more they understand the disparity in prices charged by freestanding ambulatory surgery centers and hospital-based outpatient facilities, the more likely they are to choose less-expensive ASCs for orthopedic surgery, a new study finds. Patients who choose ASCs, the study finds further, do not have more complications.
The study, which appears in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, examined the impact of a reference-based insurance plan adopted by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) in 2012. Under such a plan, patients are responsible for the difference between a payer’s fixed contribution for a given procedure and the provider’s ultimate charge. 