Patients poorly estimate the overall costs of a total knee arthroplasty and strongly overestimate the surgeon's fee

In an attempt to reduce health care expenses, regulated competition between health care providers has been introduced in The Netherlands. As for total hip and knee arthroplasties, health care providers have to publish their prices to make them available for the insurance companies and the public. Eventually, competition between health care providers should result in optimal care for lower prices. The purpose of this study was to define the patients' consciousness of the overall costs and specialist's fee for a total knee arthroplasty. Thirty-nine patients with a recent total knee arthroplasty were asked to estimate the total costs and the surgeon's fee of this procedure. The average overall cost of a total knee arthroplasty in our hospital was Euro 11.500. The orthopaedic surgeon's fee represents a non-negotiable 5% of these total costs. The mean estimate of the overall costs of a total knee arthroplasty by the patients was Euro 10.000 (range: Euro 600 to Euro 55.000). Only 26% of the patients (n = 10) gave an estimate within the accepted "correct" range of Euro 8.500 to Euro 14.500. The surgeon's fee was estimated at 32% (range: 5% to 75%) of the total costs and a majority reckoned the actual fraction of 5% was low. Patients have a poor notion of the overall costs of a total knee arthroplasty and strongly overestimate the specialist's fee. Whether the introduction of budget competition in health care may actually result in a decrease in health care costs remains to be seen.