*2.6. Costs*

The cost was defined as the direct cost related to the surgical procedure (material and medicine costs only). This data was exported from the managemen<sup>t</sup> accounting REKOLE® analyses that are performed annually at our institution. The standard reimbursement for a TSA was calculated by multiplying the hospital base rate (9550 CHF) by the DRG standard cost-weight, which varied between 1.929 and 2.096 from 2015 to 2019. The standard TSA reimbursement for a patient with basic insurance only was therefore 19,081 CHF in 2015, 20,017 CHF in 2016, 18,651 in 2017, 18,422 CHF in 2018, and 18,479 CHF in 2019. In our consecutive series of patients with basic insurance only (*n* = 47, 38%), the direct cost per case represented 44% of the total cost (44% ± 7%; median, 44%; range, 32–60%). Thus, we considered that 44% of the standard TSA reimbursement should be used as the direct cost reference, which gives: 8396 CHF in 2015, 8807 CHF in 2016, 8206 in 2017, 8106 CHF in 2018, and 8131 CHF in 2019.
