Patterns of Costs and Spending Among Orthopedic Surgeons Across the United States: A National Survey

Due to rising medical costs, the purpose of this study was to investigate the spending patterns of orthopedic surgeons across the United States and the financial implications of such behavior.

Overall, 2,000 randomly chosen orthopedic surgeons from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) were invited to answer web-based surveys on their utilization of healthcare resources; 1,214 (61%) completed the survey. There was a significant difference (P < .001) in monthly expenditure based on 8 domains of orthopedic care for the average orthopedist: x-ray costs were $7,536, computed
tomography costs were $2,340, magnetic resonance imaging costs were $14,975, ultrasound costs were $686, laboratory test costs were $969, specialty referral costs were $1,389, biopsy costs were $1,314, and hospital admission costs were $6,808. Significant differences in monthly expenditure existed based on orthopedist practice setting (P < .001), subspecialty (P < .001), gender (P < .001), and age (P < .001). Demographics with the highest monthly spending included orthopedic private group setting ($36,278), orthopedic oncology subspecialty ($41,795), male gender ($33,843), and age 50 to 59 ($35,559). The average monthly expenditure for orthopedists nationally was calculated to be $33,436 per physician.

Given there are approximately 20,400 practicing orthopedists, the annual United States expenditure in orthopedic surgery was calculated to be $8.2 billion. Orthopedic spending is a significant component of national healthcare expenditure.