COMPENSATION SHOULD BE ADJUSTED FOR BMI-RELATED COSTS (Orthopedics This Week)
Researchers from Canada have examined the costs and outcomes of total hip arthroplasty (THA) among patients in different weight categories and concluded that physician pay should be tied to the costs and efforts required to treat overweight patients.
Their work, “Ninety-Day Costs, Reoperations, and Readmissions for Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty Patients of Varying Body Mass Index Levels,” appears in the November 24, 2018 edition of The Journal of Arthoplasty.
Edward Vasarhelyi, M.D., M.Sc. with the University of Western Ontario in Canada and co-author on the study, explained his purpose for the study to OTW, “This work was the first time we have been able to quantify our costs associated with treating patients of varying BMI [body mass index] levels.”
“By elucidating the absolute costs, as well as the cost drivers, we can better advocate for appropriate risk-adjusted remuneration for centres that provide care for the morbidly-obese and super-obese patients. We have shown that although they have significantly higher costs and complication rate, these patients derive equivalent clinical improveme...
