Serão Preço e Custo Coincidentes na Cirurgia Cardíaca do Idoso?

INTRODUCTION: Payment for cardiac surgery in Portugal is based on a contract agreement between hospitals and the health ministry. Our aim was to compare the prices paid according to this contract agreement with calculated costs in a population of patients aged ≥65 years undergoing cardiac surgery in one hospital department. METHODS: Data on 250 patients operated between September 2011 and September 2012 were prospectively collected. The procedures studied were coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) (n=67), valve surgery (n=156) and combined CABG and valve surgery (n=27). Costs were calculated by two methods: micro-costing when feasible and mean length of stay otherwise. Price information was provided by the hospital administration and calculated using the hospital's mean case-mix. RESULTS: Thirty-day mortality was 3.2%. Mean EuroSCORE I was 5.97 (standard deviation [SD] 4.5%), significantly lower for CABG (p