TABLE 2.

Starting values for the BIR model

Visit type	Physician office visit	ED	Inp	Amb Sur	Inp Sur	Total
Per‐visit BIR cost	$20.49	$61.54	$124.26	$170.4	$215.1	‐
Percent of total BIR costs	55.33%	17.89%	9.56%	13.04%	4.17%	100%
Total BIR cost, (100 thousands)	$61 615	$19 922	$10 646	$14 521	$4644	$111 360

Estimation of the fixed and variable BIR costs per patient encounters in the United States. Physician payments in 2019 were $768 billion, ²² 14.5% of which were estimated to represent BIR costs, ² or a total of $111.36 billion. We further allocate these costs across different patient encounters, based on the number of patient visits nationally and the reported BIR cost per visit. ² , ²³ , ²⁴ , ²⁵ , ²⁶