• Anthony O Asemota, Masaru Ishii, Henry Brem, and Gary L Gallia.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
• World Neurosurg. 2021 May 1; 149: e1180-e1198.

BackgroundGeographic variations in health care costs have been reported for many surgical specialties.ObjectiveIn this study, we sought to describe national and regional costs associated with transsphenoidal pituitary surgery (TPS).MethodsData from the Truven-MarketScan 2010-2014 were analyzed. We examined overall total, hospital/facility, physician, and out-of-pocket payments in patients undergoing TPS including technique-specific costs. Mean payments were obtained after risk adjustment for patient-level and system-level confounders and estimated differences across regions.ResultsThe estimated overall annual burden was $43 million/year in our cohort. The average overall total payment associated with TPS was $35,602.30, hospital/facility payment was $26,980.45, physician payment was $4685.95, and out-of-pocket payment was $2330.78. Overall total and hospital/facility costs were highest in the West and lowest in the South (both P < 0.001), whereas physician reimbursements were highest in the North-east and lowest in the South (P < 0.001). There were no differences in out-of-pocket expenses across regions. On a national level, there were significantly higher overall total and hospital/facility payments associated with endoscopic compared with microscopic procedures (both P < 0.001); there were no significant differences in physician payments or out-of-pocket expenses between techniques. There were also significant within-region cost differences in overall total, hospital/facility, and physician payments in both techniques as well as in out-of-pocket expenses associated with microsurgery. There were no significant regional differences in out-of-pocket expenses associated with endoscopic surgery.ConclusionsOur results show significant geographic cost disparities associated with TPS. Understanding factors behind disparate costs is important for developing cost containment strategies.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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