Knee Replacement Costs in Guangdong: Before and After Policy Changes

You might be wondering how much a knee replacement surgery costs in Guangdong, China, and how these costs have changed over time. Well, let's dive into that. In Guangdong Province, there was a big change in how medical supplies were bought. This is called the National Volume-based Procurement Policy. Before this policy, hospitals could buy supplies however they wanted. After the policy, they had to buy in bulk to get better prices. Researchers wanted to see how this change affected the cost of hospital stays for people getting total knee arthroplasty (TKA), which is a fancy name for knee replacement surgery. They looked at the costs before and after the policy. The study found that the cost of staying in the hospital for a knee replacement went down after the new policy. This might be because hospitals could buy supplies cheaper by buying in bulk. But here's something interesting to think about. While the cost of staying in the hospital went down, the cost of the surgery itself didn't change much. This means that the surgery part of the bill is still pretty expensive. So, while the new policy helped make hospital stays cheaper, there's still room to make the surgery part more affordable. Maybe the next step is to look at how the surgery costs can be reduced.