Implant prices for total shoulder replacement surgery have plummeted more than 40% since 2010, but patients and surgeons have seen almost none of that savings, with hospitals capturing the benefit while physician reimbursements fell nearly as fast as the implant prices themselves, according to a study published in May in Science Direct.
The study analyzed 59,442 total shoulder procedures from 2010 to 2022 using commercial insurance claims and the largest publicly available implant registry.
Here are seven things to know:
1. The average price of an anatomic shoulder implant was $5,928 and fell 45.3% in inflation-adjusted terms over the study period.
2. Reverse shoulder implants, which averaged $8,720, saw a nearly identical drop of 42.9% over the same period.
3. Physician reimbursement, averaging just $3,016 per procedure, fell 46.4%, almost perfectly mirroring the decline in implant prices.
4. Total procedure costs averaged $37,027 and declined by only 32.3%. This drop did not reach statistical significance, meaning the overall savings were far smaller than those seen in implant prices alone.
5. Hospital reimbursements, averaging $31,878, fell by just 29.8%, also not statistically significant suggesting hospitals absorbed far less of the financial pressure than surgeons did.
6. Patients saw almost no relief. Average out-of-pocket costs of $979 declined by only 13.9%, a change so small it was statistically indistinguishable from no change at all.
7. The authors concluded that hospitals and insurers appear to be capturing the savings from cheaper implants, while surgeons absorb the cuts and patients are left paying roughly the same as before.
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