Using Quantity of Service Data in Medicaid Claims to Estimate Anesthesia Time
Authors' conclusion
The QoS variable reported on state Medicaid anesthesia claims had utility in approximating anesthesia time as minutes or 15-min units when evaluating anesthesia claims from two common surgical procedures.
Study context
- Population
- Medicaid fee-for-service anesthesia claims for appendectomies and cholecystectomies, beneficiaries under age 65 yr, Medicaid Analytic eXtract 1999 to 2013
- Participants
- 902,492 claims
- Exposure
- Unit states vs Minute states vs Units and minutes states
- Unit statesn = 14
- Minute statesn = 19
- Units and minutes statesn = 16
- Outcome
- Quantity of service (QoS) as proxy for anesthesia time: reflection of expected anesthesia time, correlation with Medicaid payment, state interpretation of QoS as anesthesia time (Spearman coefficients >0.7 strong)
Methodological detailsclaims database analysis, validation of administrative data
- Claims database analysis
- Validation of administrative data
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
States meeting all three criteria
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
States reporting both units and minutes meeting all three criteria
- Unit claims meeting the three criteria
- 8 of 16 (50%)
- Minute claims meeting the three criteria
- 9 of 16 (56%)
Median quantity of service (QoS) values, appendectomy and cholecystectomy
- Appendectomy, claims in units
- 6 U
- Cholecystectomy, claims in units
- 7 U
- Appendectomy, claims in minutes
- 76 min
- Cholecystectomy, claims in minutes
- 89 min
Original publication
Using Quantity of Service Data in Medicaid Claims to Estimate Anesthesia Time. Anesthesiology. Published 15 September 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →