Average hospital charges for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, 1993: geographic variations

Claims to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company by group health insured and their dependents for a percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) averaged $21,760 in 1993. The charges varied by as much as 68 percent among the 22 states in which at least 50 PTCAs were performed. The highest average total charges were reported in Colorado and California, where they were 29 and 26 percent, respectively, above the average for the United States as a whole. The lowest average total charge was reported in Ohio, where the PTCA cost $16,770-23 percent lower than the national average. An average of 4.3 days of hospitalization was required for a PTCA. Hospital charges (room and board and ancillary fees) accounted for 78 percent of the total PTCA charges to insurance. The charges for the operating room, laboratory, blood bank, respiratory therapy and other ancillary fees together accounted for 80 percent of the total hospital bill and averaged $13,550 for the country as a whole. Physicians' fees averaged $4,740 across the United States and ranged from a high of $5,930 in Connecticut to a low of $3,730 in Michigan. These PTCA total charges were close to half the charge reported for a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) in 1992 and the length of stay was also about half that for a CABG.