Arthroscopy Patients in Medicare Population Became Sicker While Reimbursement Decreased From 2013 to 2020.

Purpose: To assess surgeon reimbursement for common arthroscopic procedures, including arthroscopic meniscal debridement and arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, in patients with differing risk profiles within the Medicare population.

Methods: A publicly available Medicare database was used to identify all cases of arthroscopic meniscal debridement and arthroscopic rotator cuff repair procedures billed to Medicare from 2013 to 2020. The surgeon reimbursement from Medicare was collected and adjusted for inflation. All procedure episodes were split into 2 cohorts; those with a hierarchical condition category (HCC) risk score ≥1.5, and those with patient HCC risk scores <1.5. Reimbursement rates were compared between groups.

Results: From 2013 to 2020, a total of 624,077 meniscal debridement procedures and 567,794 arthroscopic rotator cuff repairs were billed to Medicare Part B. During this time, the mean adjusted surgeon reimbursement for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair decreased by 9.2% from 2013 to 2020. During the same time period, the adjusted mean surgeon reimbursement for arthroscopic both compartment meniscal debridement and single compartment meniscal debridement decreased by 7.9% and 9.9%, respectively. Throughout the study period, the mean HCC risk score increased from 1.19 in 2013 to 1.31 in 2020 ( < .001). Across all years in the study, the sicker cohort had a significantly greater rate of all comorbidities and a greater mean body mass index ( < .001 for all variables). The mean reimbursement across this cohort was lower for both rotator cuff repair ( = .037) and meniscal debridement procedures ( < .001) compared with the healthier cohort.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that from 2013 to 2020, inflation-adjusted surgeon reimbursement for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and meniscal debridement decreased while patient complexity increased. Further, mean surgeon reimbursement was lower among patients with more complexity in comparison with their healthier counterparts for such procedures.

Level Of Evidence: Level III, retrospective cohort study.