Contribution of high-technology procedures to public healthcare expenditures: the case of ischemic heart disease in Portugal, 2002-2015.

Abstract

The magnitude of the impact of technological innovations on healthcare expenditure is unclear. This paper estimated the impact of high-technology procedures on public healthcare expenditure for patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) in Portugal. The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method was applied to Portuguese NHS administrative data for IHD discharges during two periods, 2008-2015 vs. 2002-2007 (N = 434,870). We modelled per episode healthcare expenditures on the introduction of new technologies, adjusting for GDP, patient age, and comorbidities. The per episode healthcare expenditure was significantly higher in 2008-2015 compared to 2002-2007 for IHD discharges. The increase in the use of high-technology procedures contributed to 28.6% of this growth among all IHD patients, and to 18.4%, 6.8%, 11.1%, and 29.2% for acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, stable angina, and other IHDs, respectively. Changes in the use of stents and embolic protection and/or coronary brachytherapy devices were the largest contributors to expenditure growth. High-technology procedures were confirmed as a key driver of public healthcare expenditure growth in Portugal, contributing to more than a quarter of this growth.