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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Med Care. 2013 Aug;51(8):748–757. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0b013e31829b091d

Table 5.

90-Day Medical Costs and Index Hospitalization Costs for Designated Hospitals and Other Hospitals for Cervical Simple Fusion, Lumbar Simple Fusion, and Lumbar Discectomy/Decompression, July 2007–September 2009

Cost Category Cervical Simple Fusion Lumbar Simple Fusion Lumbar Discectomy/Decompression
Designated
Hospitals
N=12,342b 		Other
Hospitals
N=16,937b 		Adjusted %
Higher Costs at
Designated vs.
Other Hospitals
(95% CI) * 		Designated
Hospitals
N=11,279b 		Other
Hospitals
N=15,916b 		Adjusted %
Higher Costs at
Designated vs.
Other
Hospitals
(95% CI) * 		Designated
Hospitals
N=13,585b 		Other
Hospitals
N=15,314b 		% Difference
between
Designated and
Other Hospitals
(95% CI) *
Mean unadjusted costs
$ (SD)		 Mean unadjusted costs
$ (SD)		 Mean unadjusted costs
$ (SD)
Total medical costs during 90 days following admission datea 26,187 (16,762) 26,548 (17,959) 3.0% (0.3%–6.4%) 44,919 (28,737) 45,669 (30,991) 1.8% (−1.6%–5.2%) 14,528 (10,324) 14,929 (13,088) −0.3% (−3.6%–3.1%)
Medical costs during index hospitalization 22,945 (11,110) 23,063 (13,354) 1.1% (−3.3%–5.5%) 40,010 (24,496) 40,753 (26,803) 2.9% (−1.8%–7.7%) 11,382 (5,180) 11,562 (11,382) 2.3% (−1.6%–6.2%)
a

Medical costs include the index hospitalization and all other medical costs in the 90 days following the admission date of the index hospitalization.

b

The sample size differs from Table 4 because patients who died in the 90 days after surgery were excluded from these cost analyses as were patients for whom the “allowed cost” fields were zero for all their claims

*

The percentage represents the adjusted difference in costs at designated hospitals compared to other hospitals. For example, 3.0% means costs at designated hospitals were 3.0 percentage points higher than at other hospitals. Models included age, gender, and presence of 26 different comorbidities.