Hospital Reimbursement for Carotid Stenting and Endarterectomy

Abstract

Hospital reimbursement for CAS is significantly higher than that for CEA. While both procedures created net positive income for the hospital, CEA was associated with a 29% higher net revenue due to the 40% cost premium of CAS when looking at all carotid procedures. However, proper DRG coding of CAS cases would have likely resulted in similar net revenue. Asymptomatic patients had the lowest cost and highest net revenue of all the subgroups. Per capita, significantly more healthcare resources were expended with CAS when compared to CEA. Given the lack of improved clinical outcome in most cases, CAS cannot be considered cost-effective for most patients.