Contribution of high-technology procedures to public healthcare expenditures: the case of ischemic heart disease in Portugal, 2002–2015

The magnitude of the impact of technological innovations on healthcare expenditure is unclear. This paper estimated the impact of high-technology procedures on public healthcare expenditure for patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) in Portugal. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method was applied to Portuguese NHS administrative data for IHD discharges during two periods, 2008–2015 vs. 2002–2007 (N = 434,870). We modelled per episode healthcare expenditures on the introduction of new technologies, adjusting for GDP, patient age, and comorbidities. The per episode healthcare expenditure was significantly higher in 2008–2015 compared to 2002–2007 for IHD discharges. The increase in the use of high-technology procedures contributed to 28.6