VIDEO: Changes to inpatient-only list for TJA impact racial, ethnic health disparities
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
CHICAGO — In this video from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting, Claudette M. Lajam, MD, discussed the impact of changes to the inpatient-only list on patients from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“What we found was that the changes to the inpatient-only list correlated with increases in outpatient total joint arthroplasty for everyone, but Black patients and Hispanic patients lagged behind significantly in adopting outpatient status,” she said.
“The bottom line is: When institutions are financially penalized when they spend more money on patient care, it impacts access to care. When regulatory changes don’t take into account the fact that there are racial and ethnic differences in adopting changes, we need to pay close attention to this,” Lajam added. “What we don’t want is for payers to see costs rising and not build this into payment plans, because this will leave a whole group of patients out from the miracle that is a joint replacement.”
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts