Observational studyThe International journal of health planning and management2022
More surgery in December among US patients with commercial insurance is offset by unrelated but lesser surgery among patients with Medicare insurance.
Observational study in The International journal of health planning and management, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Changes in Trends of Shoulder and Knee Arthroscopy Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Global research & reviews · 2026Article
- Article
- More surgery in December among US patients with commercial insurance is offset by unrelated but lesser surgery among patients with Medicare insurance.The International journal of health planning and management · 2022Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
STUDY
objectiveEvaluate whether there is more surgery (in the US State of Florida) at the end of the year, specifically among patients with commercial insurance.
designObservational cohort study.
settingThe 712 facilities in Florida that performed inpatient or outpatient elective surgery from January 2010 through December 2019.
resultsAmong patients with commercial insurance, December had more cases than November (1.108 [1.092-1.125]) or January (1.257 [1.229-1.286]). In contrast, among patients with Medicare insurance (traditional or managed care), December had fewer cases than November (ratio 0.917 [99% confidence interval 0.904-0.930]) or January (0.823 [0.807-0.839]) of the same year. Summing among all cases, December did not have more cases than November (ratio 1.003 [0.992-1.014]) or January (0.998 [0.984-1.013]). Comparing December versus November (January) ratios for cases among patients with commercial insurance to the corresponding ratios for cases among patients with Medicare, years with more commercial insurance cases had more Medicare cases (Spearman rank correlation +0.36 [+0.25], both p < 0.0001).
conclusionsIn the US State of Florida, although some surgeons' procedural workloads may have seasonal variation if they care mostly for patients with one category of insurance, surgical facilities with patients undergoing many procedures will have less variability. Importantly, more commercial insurance cases were not causing Medicare cases to be postponed or vice-versa, providing mechanistic explanation for why forecasts of surgical demand can reasonably be treated as the sum of the independent workloads among many surgeons.
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