Findings from a study published online in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery suggest that insurance payer status may be associated with perioperative complication risk for patients who undergo shoulder arthroplasty. 

The authors reviewed data on 103,290 shoulder arthroplasty patients (68,578 Medicare, 27,159 private insurance, 3,544 Medicaid/uninsured, 4,009 other) from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database. They found that the overall complication rate was 17.2 percent and the mortality rate was 0.20 percent. Overall, Medicare and Medicaid/uninsured patients had a significantly increased risk of medical, surgical, and overall complications compared with private insurance using controlled match data. Multivariate regression analysis suggested that private insurance was associated with fewer overall medical complications. Learn more... and Read article...