• Vaibhavi Shah, Adrian J Rodrigues, Shreya Malhotra, Thomas Johnstone, Kunal Varshneya, Ghani Haider, Martin N Stienen, and Anand Veeravagu.
• Neurosurgical Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
• World Neurosurg. 2023 May 1; 173: e669e676e669-e676.

ObjectiveWe assessed whether the insurance type reflects a patient's quality of care after an anterior discectomy and fusion (ACDF) procedure by comparing differences in the postoperative complications, readmission rates, reoperation rates, lengths of hospital stay, and cost of treatment between patients with Medicare versus private insurance.MethodsPropensity score matching was used to match patient cohorts insured by Medicare and private insurance in the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database (2007-2016). Age, sex, year of operation, geographic region, comorbidities, and operative factors were used to match cohorts of patients who had undergone an ACDF procedure.ResultsA total of 110,911 patients met the inclusion criteria. Of these patients, 97,543 patients (87.9%) were privately insured and 13,368 patients (12.1%) were insured by Medicare. The propensity score matching algorithm matched 7026 privately insured patients to 7026 Medicare patients. After matching, no significant differences were found in the 90-day postoperative complication rates, lengths of stay, or reoperation rates between the Medicare and privately insured cohorts. The Medicare group had had lower postoperative readmission rates for all time points: 30 days (1.8% vs. 4.6%; P < 0.001), 60 days (2.5% vs. 6.3%; P < 0.001), and 90 days (4.2% vs. 7.7%; P < 0.001). The median payment to physicians was significantly lower for the Medicare group ($3885 vs. $5601; P < 0.001).ConclusionsIn the present study, propensity score matched patients covered by Medicare and private insurance who had undergone an ACDF procedure had had similar treatment outcomes.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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