Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jul 25;38(5):617-621.
doi: 10.1080/08998280.2025.2530809. eCollection 2025.

Treatment charges for acute coronary syndrome: A retrospective analysis

Luke Frizzell  1 , Jonathan Deleon  1 , Sean Reilly  1 , Kendal Hammonds  2 , Jose E Exaire  3 , Timothy A Mixon  3 , Billy Don Jones  3 , Christopher Chiles  3 , R Jay Widmer  4
Affiliations

Treatment charges for acute coronary syndrome: A retrospective analysis

Luke Frizzell et al. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). .

Abstract

Background: This study analyzes the costs associated with treatment strategies for acute coronary syndrome: coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and medical management (MM).

Methods: This is a substudy of a previous analysis showing improved outcomes with CABG compared to PCI and MM, now focusing on variation in charges based on the type of treatment, hospital length of stay (LOS), and the occurrence of hospital readmission. We extracted total reimbursements, LOS, and readmissions for acute coronary syndrome patients (4267) between 2018 and 2022 from the electronic health record.

Results: Expenses related to total charges were higher for CABG patients than PCI patients (+$106,047); however, average daily charges were lower for CABG patients compared to PCI patients (+$14,957). LOS was a primary driver for total charges, as CABG patients stayed 8.35 ± 0.50 days longer than PCI patients on average. The average difference between the total charge amount for readmitted and nonreadmitted patients was $22,765 ± $11,820. Even though readmission increases total charges, the charge per day was still less in patients with readmission due to their longer LOS.

Conclusion: The higher total charge amount and lower charge per day in CABG patients compared to PCI patients, as well as readmitted patients, highlights the importance of employing strategies to reduce LOS and minimize charges for CABG and readmissions.

Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome; cost analysis; hospital length of stay; multivessel coronary artery disease; readmission.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the Cardiovascular Research Review Committee at Baylor Scott & White Research Institute. Dr. Widmer declares industry relationships with Philips, Medtronic, and Abbott. The other authors report no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The total charge amount for individual patients from the entire data set based on their length of stay (LOS). The trend line is y = 14,432x + 9,549.1, and the coefficient of determination is reported as R` = 0.5917.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Trends across treatment groups for (a) total charge amount, (b) charge per day, and (c) length of stay (LOS). (a) The total charge amount was highest in CABG ($276,156), followed by PCI ($128,479) and MM ($80,269). The differences in total charge amount were significant between CABG and PCI, and CABG and MM (P < 0.01). (b) Charge per day amount was highest in PCI ($38,701), followed by CABG ($21,724) and MM ($12,939). The charge per day amount differences were significant across all three comparisons (P < 0.01). (c) LOS was the longest in CABG (12.79), followed by MM (8.97) and PCI (6.07). The differences in LOS were significant across all three comparisons (P < 0.01). CABG indicates coronary artery bypass grafting; MM, medical management; PCI, percutaneous coronary intervention.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Trends in charge per day amount across treatment subgroups stratified by the presence or absence of a 30-day readmission. The charge per day amount was highest in PCI patients without a readmission ($35,517) and lowest in MM patients with a readmission ($12,098). Notably, the differences in charges were not significant when comparing readmitted to not readmitted patients within each treatment group. CABG indicates coronary artery bypass grafting; MM, medical management; PCI, percutaneous coronary intervention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Roggeri DP, Roggeri A, Rossi E, et al. Direct healthcare costs and resource consumption after acute coronary syndrome: a real-life analysis of an Italian subpopulation. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2014;21(9):1090–1096. doi: 10.1177/2047487313483608. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Doenst T, Haverich A, Serruys P, et al. PCI and CABG for treating stable coronary artery disease: JACC review topic of the week. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2019;73(8):964–976. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2018.11.053. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Widmer RJ, Hammonds K, Mixon T, et al. Acute coronary syndrome revascularization strategies with multivessel coronary artery disease. Am J Cardiol. 2024;220:33–38. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2024.04.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Switaj TL, Christensen SR, Brewer DM.. Acute coronary syndrome: current treatment. Am Fam Physician. 2017;95(4):232–240. - PubMed
    1. Gouda P, Savu A, Bainey KR, Kaul P, Welsh RC.. Long-term risk of death and recurrent cardiovascular events following acute coronary syndromes. PLoS One. 2021;16(7):e0254008. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254008. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources