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Report of my findings
A recent study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery' asked an interesting question: "Does Payer Type Affect (Orthopedic) Practice Expenses?"
The authors discovered that the answer is a resounding "Yes!" In fact, workers' compensation expenses were more than double that of self-payers.
The study took place in Texas, where the investigators selected a large orthopedic practice and followed the progress of 518 consecutive patients, using fairly straightforward methodology:
"The various practice expenses were calculated on an individual patient basis with use of the method of activity-based costing.2,3,4
"Data for these activities were collected via a time-motion study on a per-patient basis. All employees were issued a study notebook and a stopwatch. The notebook contained individual data sheets for each patient, so that the employees could record the time spent (to the nearest minute) on any and all activities related to the particular patient's care."
When the practice expenses (excluding payment to the provider) were calculated and the math was completed, the investigators discovered that practice expenses change dramatically based on payer type:
According to these results practice expenses...