Thirty-day costs for acute MI patients on Medicare were $627 higher for admissions to PCI vs. non-PCI-capable hospitals in a recent study. This higher price tag, while relatively modest, still needs to be justified, the researchers wrote.   

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the physician fee schedule, and with it a reminder of unfinished business: the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula.

It sounds counterintuitive, but hospitals may save money by waiting a day before discharging heart failure patients. One more day in the hospital also reduces death from MI and pneumonia, according to a report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Patients who survive in-hospital cardiac arrests are not completely out of the woods, and mortality, readmission rates and inpatient costs prove it. Researchers found that 30-day and one-year readmission rates were exceptionally high among in-hospital cardiac arrest survivors, as were inpatient costs.

Cardiovascular specialists will find little joy in final regulations released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Changes for 2015 leave payments generally flat—at least until April 1, when the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula patch is scheduled to expire.

Heparin choice can impact costs, according to a study published online Nov. 1 in JAMA. The economic analysis found median hospital costs were $1,297 less per patient with low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) dalteparin as opposed to unfractionated heparin.

Cardiovascular device makers may need to brace and embrace to stay afloat, according one market projection. Analysts predicted a 6 percent decline in margins for medical device companies by 2020, which could be offset by $34 billion in profits and cost reductions.

It may be time to readjust lifetime financial costs for stroke patients. According to a 10-year follow-up in an Australian study, the annual price tag for treatment following stroke was higher than they’d previously estimated at year five.