CAN SPECIALISTS REDUCE COSTS - THE CASE OF REFERRALS TO ORTHOPEDIC SURGEONS

This study investigates whether timely referral to specialists, in thi s case orthopaedic surgeons, potentially can reduce the costs of a hea lth care episode. Five musculoskeletal diagnoses were chosen, and the diagnostic and treatment history of approximately 2500 persons with th ese five diagnoses was traced to determine when in the course of their treatment episode they were referred from nonorthopaedist to orthopae dist care and how much their episode of care cost. It was found that t he average episodic costs for those who were referred earlier in the e pisode of care was lower than for those referred later. The implicatio n is that there are likely to be numerous identifiable health conditio ns that should be flagged for early referral to specialists to reduce costs. It also questions the validity of the presumption that speciali st care is necessarily more expensive.