Texas Institute for Surgery, North Central Surgical Center, and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital have the Lowest MSPB Costs for Hip & Knee Replacement Surgeries in Dallas Area

By: Yosh Thomas  Nov. 06, 2020

Dexur analyzed Medicare Claims data to calculate the Medicare Spending per Beneficiary (MSPB) cost for hospitals in the Dallas metro area for Hip and Knee Replacement surgeries and ranked the hospitals based on cost outcomes. MSPB weighs 25% in the CMS Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program and is the only measure under the Efficiency and Cost domain. Hospitals have to wait more than a year to get aggregate MSPB numbers with no insight into DRG or service line specific costs. Dexur replicates CMS algorithms to update DRG and service line MSPB costs on a quarterly basis and with only a 5-6 month delay. For the analysis, Dexur considered hospitals in the Dallas area that recorded more than 11 episodes of DRG 470 during the calendar year 2019. Dexur did the analysis based on Q1 2020 data but the index hospitalization discharge date was taken into account till December 2019 to accommodate the 30-day post-discharge period in calculating rehospitalization, SNF, and HHA costs. The analysis was risk-adjusted and was done for DRG 470: Major Joint Replacement or Reattachment of Lower Extremity without Major Complication or Comorbidity.

Sixty-one hospitals met the prerequisites for the study in the Dallas metro area. Dexur further segregated the hospitals based on the two subdivisions, Fort Worth - Arlington metro division and Dallas - Plano - Irving metro division and ranked them. The analysis revealed that Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southlake, located in Tarrant County, had the lowest average MSPB cost per episode of $15,303 in the Fort Worth - Arlington MD. The average index hospitalization amounted to $10,979 while the average post-discharge cost was $4,320. The average rehospitalization, SNF, and HHA costs of $906, $661, and $2,593, respectively.

Similarly, Baylor Orthopedic and Spine Hospital and Baylor Surgical Hospital, located in Tarrant county also had lower MSPB costs in the region. The average MSPB costs of these hospitals were $16,464 and $18,055, respectively. The cost for DRG 470 of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne was on the higher side with an average cost per episode of $26,081. The average index hospitalization and the post-discharge cost of this hospital was $13,921 and $12,070, respectively.