Implantable devices · 3,662 hospitals · measured from public filings
Hospitals do not cover their cost on joint replacement
The hardware in a knee replacement costs a hospital $7,017, around 60% of what Medicare pays for the whole operation. On a fully-allocated basis the median hospital does not clear its cost, and hospitals differ by 2.6× in what they pay for implantable devices.
Ben Tenner · measured, sourced, reproducible
$7,017
Hardware in a total knee
median of 657 hospitals
p10 $4,071 · p90 $19,323
It is derivable from two federal filings: what a hospital charges for an item, and what a charged dollar costs it. Across 359,848 components priced at every hospital that publishes one, what stands out is not any single part. It is how far apart hospitals sit from each other, and how little of the operation's payment is left once the hardware is bought.