At the 20th Annual Spine, Orthopedic + Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, attendees had the privilege of attending the Keynote Panel, Cost Outlook for Orthopedic and Spine Surgery.
The panel was composed of four esteemed physicians and was moderated by Alan Condon, Editor in Chief, Becker's Healthcare.
The panelists included Brian Gantwerker, MD, Neurosurgeon, The Crainiospinal Center of Los Angeles, Maxwell Laurans, MD, MBA, Vice President, Surgical Services and Clinical Chief, Perioperative Services, Yale New Haven Hospital, David Mackey, MD, Professor, Department, Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Afshin Mashoof, MD, Orthopedic Surgeon, Center for Advanced Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. The panelists discussed the current cost outlook of orthopedic and spine surgery and provided attendees with valuable insight into the industry.
Key Takeaways:
- The biggest cost contributors to achieving value in spine surgery today are labor and supplies.
The cost of labor and supplies in spine surgery can be reduced by standardizing products and using technology to decentralize care, which can help bring down the overall cost of care. - We need to be more cost-conscious when it comes to medical procedures and consider alternative payment methods such as direct-to-employer contracting.
In order to bring down the cost of healthcare, we need to be more mindful of costs and explore alternative payment methods like direct-to-employer contracting to eliminate administrative costs. - Healthcare is shifting from volume to value and from inpatient to outpatient settings.
In the next five years, we can expect to see more spine surgery performed in ambulatory settings and more pain procedures carried out in office-based settings, and there will be an economic collapse of traditional hospital-based healthcare systems. - Standardization and efficiency play a crucial role in clinical specialty products.
The panelists believe that there are significant advantages to standardization both operationally and from quality metrics.