Health-Care Patterns for Three Common Elective Surgeries: Implications for Bundled Payment Models.

Introduction: The study objectives were to assess the timing, duration, and nature of health-care service utilization before and after three common elective surgical procedures not currently included in federal episode-based bundled payment programs.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing one of three low-risk surgical procedures (breast reduction, upper extremity nerve decompression, and panniculectomy) between 2010 and 2017 using a private insurer's national claims database. All professional and facility billing claims for health-care services were identified during the 12-mo preoperative and 12-mo postoperative periods for each patient. We compared trends in monthly utilization of health-care services to estimate surgery-related utilization patterns with interrupted time series analyses.

Results: The cohort included 7885 patients receiving breast reduction, 99,404 patients receiving upper extremity nerve decompression, and 955 patients receiving panniculectomy. The mean monthly encounters gradually increased before each procedure, with a gradual decline in services postoperatively. Claims in the preoperative period for all procedures were primarily diagnostic testing and outpatient evaluation and management. There was limited use of postacute care services across the surgical procedures. There were notable differences in service utilization between the three surgeries, including differing inflection points for preoperative services (approximately 7 mo for breast reduction and panniculectomy, compared with at least 9 mo for nerve decompression) and postoperative services (up to 3 mo for panniculectomy and 4 mo for nerve decompression, compared with 6 mo for breast reduction).

Conclusions: This study highlights important differences in utilization of health-care services by type of surgery. These findings suggest that prior to expanding episode-based bundled payment models to surgical conditions with limited utilization of postacute care services and fewer complications, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and private payers should consider tailoring the timing and duration of clinical episodes to individual surgical procedures.