Trauma Activation Fees—A Fair Approach to Reimburse Trauma Readiness Costs or a Pathway to Profitability?

Abstract

Hospitals providing specialized trauma care incur substantial readiness costs associated with being able to provide round-the-clock emergency services-24 hours a day, every day of the year.The components of trauma readiness, including administrative and clinical staffing, in-house operating rooms, blood banks, and educational and community outreach, are described in the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient. 1 Previous work by Ashley et al 2 estimated the mean cost of trauma readiness as $6 million to $10 million annually among level I trauma centers.Trauma activation fees were created in 2002 to recuperate some of these readiness costs, which had previously never been covered by charges to individual patients.The fees can offset costs such as administrative fees, trauma team member salaries, equipment, supplies, physician trauma coverage agreements, trauma medical director and trauma registrar time, operating room readiness, blood product availability, education, protocol development, and local county emergency medical services fees.There is currently no standard fee schedule or uniform approach to calculating trauma

Topics & Concepts