The costs of colon surgery for enrollees in Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are no lower than those of similar patients participating in traditional Medicare, according to Tampa-based researchers.

Managed care plans are looked on as an important way to keep costs down under the new Medicare reform program that goes into effect next year. The US government has increased incentives to private HMOs to participate in providing Medicare services to beneficiaries.

However, investigators at the University of South Florida Health Sciences Center found that daily hospital costs appear to be higher for HMOs, canceling out any savings achieved through shorter lengths of stay in the hospital.

Dr. Michel M. Murr and associates evaluated Florida hospital discharge data from 1995 through the end of 1999, for patients 70 years of age or older who underwent surgical removal of part of the colon.

Over the study period, the average length of stay for the approximately 31,000 procedures tended to drop, but inflation-adjusted hospital charges increased significantly, the team reports in the Archives of Surgery.

Length of stay was one of the most important factors affecting hospital charges, and it was significantly lower in Medicare HMOs.

Nevertheless, overall hospital charges for the procedures were similar in the two groups, implying that per-diem charges were higher in the HMO group. The team points out that other research has documented higher administrative costs and payment rates in Medicare HMOs.

“Unless we adequately plan for an ever-growing population of elderly surgical patients,” Murr concluded in a statement, “our health care expenditures will continue to skyrocket.”

SOURCE: Archives of Surgery, December 2004.