On Monday, ATIH published a report showing the costs of care in health establishments. The study highlights the importance of saving money with outpatient surgery.
Each year, the Technical Hospital Information Agency (ATIH) publishes a national study of the costs of care for patients not reimbursed by Health Insurance in clinics and hospitals. This Monday, ATIH publishes its report indicating that hospital stays are twice as expensive as in a clinic. The survey also emphasizes the savings that can be achieved through outpatient surgery.
No hospital stay
In France, outpatient surgery refers to an operation performed in an operating theater under anesthesia and scheduled for one day, allowing the patient to be discharged the same day. “It is not therefore the surgical act which is ambulatory in itself but the patient”, specifies the High Authority of Health (HAS). The most common outpatient operations are cataracts and tooth extractions. According to the French Association for Ambulatory Surgery (AFCA), “in France today, 40% of surgeries are performed as outpatient surgery, against 80% to 90% in northern European countries. “The association specifies, however, that France is catching up with” a figure in constant progression. This increase can be explained in part by the less expensive nature of these interventions.
Uncertainties as to the potential amount of savings
In 2012, the cost of outpatient surgical stays cost an average of € 1,316 for hospitals against € 16,650 for severely severe surgical stays, says the ATIH report. In the clinic, expenses are lower, but the difference between outpatient stay and severe severity is much greater since it varies from 900 euros (outpatient) to 8,000 euros (severe severity).
In addition to these price differences, it is the clinics that provide the majority (70%) of outpatient surgery procedures, and ensure a smaller difference between the various operations. In both cases, extraction of wisdom teeth, cataract surgery and meniscus removal represent the most common treatments.
In September 2013, the Court of Auditors had estimated at five billion euros the “potential savings” achievable, via the elimination of beds. A figure disputed in January 2014 by Frédéric Valletoux, president of the Hospital Federation of France (FHF), affirming that “outpatient surgery is a way of the future, but the goose that lays the golden eggs. According to him, this practice could potentially save 570 million euros, but no more.
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