Trippoli Sabrina, Messori Andrea, Borselli Giovanna, Autieri Filomena, Mamone Domenica, Marinai Claudio
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Unit, Regione Toscana, Firenze, ITA.
Hospital Pharmacy, Usl Toscana Centro, Florence, ITA.
Cureus. 2022 Mar 12;14(3):e23092. doi: 10.7759/cureus.23092. eCollection 2022 Mar.
Introduction Medical devices (MDs) make up an important share of total in-hospital expenditure. At the level of individual patients, this share is represented by the ratio of the cost of MD incurred by the patient vs. the total cost of in-hospital care for the same patient. If tariffs rather than costs are considered, the denominator of this ratio is given by the diagnosis-related group (DRG) and the ratio is the cost of MD over DRG tariff. The objective of this paper is to present a retrospective analysis comparing the ratio of price vs. DRG tariff for a group of devices belonging to risk class III or active implantable. These devices are those assessed in the years 2020 and 2021 by two committees of the Tuscany region in Italy. Materials and methods The information on price and DRG was taken from the health technology assessment (HTA) reports concerning MDs evaluated by the two above-mentioned regional committees in the years 2020 and 2021. In these reports, the information on the cost-effectiveness ratio was reported for a subset of MDs. In all cases, a preliminary qualitative assessment was carried out to determine the presence or absence of a healthcare impact in the post-discharge phase. In these preliminary analyses, the perspective of NHS was adopted. Results Our analysis was focused on 24 devices of either class III or active implantable. According to our results, a wide variability was found in the ratios between device price and DRG associated with its use. This ratio ranged from a minimum of about 3% in the case of the Hyalobarrier gel (Nordic Pharma GmbH, Zürich, Switzerland) for post-surgical adhesion to a maximum of 132% in the case of the Neovasc Reducer (EPS Vascular AB, Viken, Sweden), a device indicated in the narrowed coronary sinus. Three devices, i.e., PuraStat (3-D Matrix, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), Ascyrus Medical Dissection Stent (AMDS, CryoLife, Inc., Kennesaw, GA), and Tendyne (Abbott Cardiovascular, Plymouth, MN), were found to be priced more than the reimbursement tariff (i.e., ratio > 100%). Ratios between 50% and 100% were found in about half of the devices. From our preliminary assessment on the presence of a post-discharge impact, 15 devices out of 24 (62%) were found to determine a substantial impact, while the remaining nine (38%) did not. In general, when costs and benefits of a device do not extend beyond the patients' discharge, the presence of a ratio > 100% reliably suggests the conclusion that the device price needs to be reduced and/or the tariff needs to be increased. On the other hand, in cases where the device extends its impact beyond the patient's hospital stay, the decision of reducing price or increasing tariff becomes more complex, and so these adjustments cannot be determined unless more information on some critical aspects is made available. Conclusions Until the above-mentioned improvements do not take place, rational interventions on DRG are virtually unfeasible owing to this lack of critical information. On the other hand, it is also difficult to intervene on device prices, again owing to the lack of critical information.
引言 医疗设备(MDs)在医院总支出中占重要份额。在个体患者层面,这一份额由患者产生的医疗设备成本与同一患者的住院护理总成本之比来表示。如果考虑的是价格而非成本,该比率的分母由诊断相关组(DRG)给出,比率即为医疗设备成本与DRG价格之比。本文的目的是对一组属于III类风险或有源植入式的设备进行回顾性分析,比较其价格与DRG价格的比率。这些设备是意大利托斯卡纳地区的两个委员会在2020年和2021年评估的设备。
材料与方法 价格和DRG信息取自上述两个地区委员会在2020年和2021年评估医疗设备的卫生技术评估(HTA)报告。在这些报告中,报告了一部分医疗设备的成本效益比率。在所有情况下,都进行了初步定性评估,以确定出院后阶段是否存在医疗影响。在这些初步分析中,采用了国民健康服务体系(NHS)的视角。
结果 我们的分析聚焦于24种III类或有源植入式设备。根据我们的结果,发现设备价格与与其使用相关的DRG之间的比率存在很大差异。该比率范围从用于术后粘连的透明质酸屏障凝胶(瑞士苏黎世的北欧制药有限公司)的最低约3%到用于狭窄冠状窦的Neovasc Reducer(瑞典维克恩的EPS Vascular AB公司)的最高132%。发现三种设备,即PuraStat(日本东京的3-D Matrix有限公司)、Ascyrus Medical解剖支架(AMDS,美国佐治亚州肯尼索的CryoLife公司)和Tendyne(美国明尼苏达州普利茅斯的雅培心血管公司)的定价高于报销价格(即比率>100%)。约一半的设备比率在50%至100%之间。从我们对出院后影响存在情况的初步评估来看,24种设备中有15种(占62%)被发现有重大影响,而其余9种(占38%)没有。一般来说,当一种设备的成本和效益不超出患者出院范围时,比率>100%可靠地表明需要降低设备价格和/或提高报销价格的结论。另一方面,在设备影响超出患者住院时间的情况下,降低价格或提高报销价格的决定变得更加复杂,因此除非能获得一些关键方面的更多信息,否则无法确定这些调整。
结论 在上述改进未实现之前,由于缺乏关键信息,对DRG进行合理干预实际上是不可行的。另一方面,由于缺乏关键信息,对设备价格进行干预也很困难。