Revenue from single-balloon enteroscopy is driven by anesthesia: experience from a tertiary care facility

Resource-intensive endoscopic procedures have shown to generate more costs than revenue under the current reimbursement system in the USA. Single-balloon enteroscopy (SBE), a resource-intensive procedure, has never been evaluated for its financial impact at tertiary care hospitals, and thus, our aim was to determine the sources of revenue that SBE procedures generate.

Retrospective review of all procedures performed using the SBE system during the first year of implementation at a single tertiary referral center. Financial data from two subspecialties in the form of revenues for physician and facility fees were collected and analyzed. Revenues were analyzed in total and as a function of payer (insurance) and physician type.

Fifty-two procedures using the SBE system were identified during the first year of implementation at a single tertiary care center. Total revenue generated for all SBE procedures was $123,714 including $64,475 dollars from physician fees and $59,239 dollars from the facility fees. Revenue generated by anesthesia physician fees was higher from Medicare cases compared to private insurance cases (p < 0.01); however, revenues from facility fees were higher for private insurance cases compared to Medicare (p < 0.01). Revenues from anesthesiology physician fees were significantly more than revenues from GI physician fees (p < 0.01). Of the three referred cases, one generated additional downstream revenues from other non-SBE-related services totaling $4727.

A large proportion of revenues generated from SBE cases come in the form of ancillary services provided by anesthesia. Projected revenue generation (and it sources) should be considered when establishing a device-assisted enteroscopy program.