title: The impact of accreditation on safety and cost of bariatric surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The objective of this study was to examine how much of the impact of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' national coverage decision (NCD) on bariatric surgery was driven by the restriction of reimbursements to Centers of Excellence (COE). We used inpatient care data of those with employer-sponsored insurance plans across United States using the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounter Database (2003-2009).
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective cohort study evaluating the impact of the accreditation on subjects with a difference-in-difference approach (removing the temporal changes occurring in non-COEs) on rates of inpatient mortality, 90-day reoperations, complications, readmissions, and total payments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 30,755 patients (43.9 ± 11.0 years; 79.9% women) had bariatric surgery. A total of 17,896 patients underwent procedures at sites that became COEs (8455 pre-NCD and 9441 post-NCD, [+10.4%]) compared with 12,859 at non-COEs (6534 pre-NCD and 6325 post-NCD, [-3.3%]). Of the total number of bariatric procedures, laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and laparoscopic adjustable band procedures increased from 42.9% and 3.1% pre-NCD to 64.5% and 19.7% post-NCD, respectively. In the COEs, there were reductions in inpatient mortality (.3% to .1%; P = .02), 90-day reoperations (.8% to .5%; P = .006), complications (36.4% to 27.6%; P<.001), and readmissions (10.8% to 8.8%; P<.001) while payments remained similar ($24,543 ± $40,145 to $24,510 ± $37,769; P = .9). After distinguishing from temporal trends and differences occurring at non-COEs, 90-day reoperation (-.8%; P = .02) and complication rates (-2.7%; P = .01) were lower at the COEs after the NCD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The accreditation-based NCD in bariatric surgery was associated with lower rates of reoperations and complications. Such policies may become a powerful tool to improve surgical safety and quality.
authors: Surgical Outcomes Research Center in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors: Steve
authors: S
authors: Kwon
authors: Bruce
authors: B
authors: Wang
authors: Edwin
authors: E
authors: Wong
authors: Rafael
authors: R
authors: Alfonso-Cristancho
authors: Sean D
authors: SD
authors: Sullivan
authors: David R
authors: DR
authors: Flum
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D000328:Adult; D050110:Bariatric Surgery / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D061214:Patient Safety; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012086:Reoperation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Accreditation; Bariatric surgery; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Centers of Excellence; National coverage decision