title: Decreasing spine implant costs and inter-physician cost variation: the impact of programme of cost containment on implant expenditure in spinal surgery.
abstract: The demand for spinal surgery and its costs have both risen over the past decade. In 2008 the aggregate hospital bill for surgical care of all spinal procedures was reported to be $33.9 billion. One key driver of rising costs is spinal implants. In 2011 our institution implemented a cost containment programme for spinal implants which was designed to reduce the prices of individual spinal implants and to reduce the inter-surgeon variation in implant costs. Between February 2012 and January 2013, our spinal surgeons performed 1493 spinal procedures using implants from eight different vendors. By applying market analysis and implant cost data from the previous year, we established references prices for each individual type of spinal implant, regardless of vendor, who were required to meet these unit prices. We found that despite the complexity of spinal surgery and the initial reluctance of vendors to reduce prices, significant savings were made to the medical centre.
authors.affiliation: NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, 301 East 17th Street, Suite 1402, New York, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oren
authors.affiliation: NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, 301 East 17th Street, Suite 1402, New York, New York, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Hutzler
authors.affiliation: NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, 301 East 17th Street, Suite 1402, New York, New York, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.affiliation: NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, 301 East 17th Street, Suite 1402, New York, New York, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Errico
authors.affiliation: NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, 301 East 17th Street, Suite 1402, New York, New York, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zuckerman
authors.affiliation: NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, 301 East 17th Street, Suite 1402, New York, New York, 10003, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bosco
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control; D006782:Hospitals, Special / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000191:economics*; D019736:Prostheses and Implants / Q000191:economics*; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000601:surgery*; D014481:United States
keywords: Cost variation; Implants; Physician variability