Posted on 05/10/2013 9:19:32 AM PDT by JerseyanExile
Consumers on Wednesday will finally get some answers about one of modern life’s most persistent mysteries: how much medical care actually costs.
For the first time, the federal government will release the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges have been closely held by facilities that see a competitive advantage in shielding their fees from competitors. What the numbers reveal is a health-care system with tremendous, seemingly random variation in the costs of services.
In the District, George Washington University’s average bill for a patient on a ventilator was $115,000, while Providence Hospital’s average charge for the same service was just under $53,000. For a lower joint replacement, George Washington University charged almost $69,000 compared with Sibley Memorial Hospital’s average of just under $30,000.
Virginia’s highest average rate for a lower limb replacement was at CJW Medical Center in Richmond, more than $117,000, compared with Winchester Medical Center charging $25,600 per procedure. CJW charged more than $38,000 for esophagitis and gastrointestinal conditions, while Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital averaged $8,100 in those cases.
Maryland has a unique system for hospital rate charges, so differences were smaller, and its average rate was lower than that of any other state in the most common procedures reviewed by The Washington Post. The highest average charge for a lower joint replacement was $36,000 by University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, much lower than the highest rates in other states.
Elsewhere, Las Colinas Medical Center just outside Dallas billed Medicare, on average, $160,832 for lower joint replacements.
Five miles away and on the same street, Baylor Medical Center in Irving, Tex., billed the government an average fee of $42,632.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No. Just make the hospitals provide information on what they charge so I can make a decision which hospital I want to go to and which one is out to rip me off.
from the start the article is very biased and the writer is a liar.
Specifically hospitals are prcluded by law from knowing what the other hospitals are charging. Medicare calld it price fixing. If it was ever determince that a hospital had access to anothers chrges or charge structure, people would/could have gone to jail.
All you have to do is ask.
The trouble is there are a million variables. Its very difficult to compare hospitals and unless you pay cash it mostly doesnt matter.
BTW! he is talking about chrages to Mediare. Ask him to find out how much the hospitals were actually PAID for those procedures. Hospitals are mostly paid on a specific rate for a procdure, regardless of how much the hospital charges. Most hospital have a write off of about 65% of total charges due to the very low payment of Federal and State reimbursement rates. The only way a hospital can stay in business is to charge non-government payors much more that the cost of their procedures to make up for how little the government is willing to pay. Usually the govt payment is much less than the actual cost of performing a specific procedure. Those unreimbursed cost must be paid by someone and comes in the way of higher prices.
I live outside DC (Northern VA) and have at least minimal knowledge on the 3 DC hospitals referred to. When I heard GW charges more than Providence I wasn’t surprised and thought ok, I’d pay more to go to GW, too. Sibley was something of a surprise.
Geography within the city probably accounts for some of the discrepancies. Sibley is located in the ‘silk stocking district’ close to the upscale MD suburbs. It’s the type hospital where you’d choose to go for non-emergency care because of its environment. And, I would assume, a disproportionately high number of its patients have insurance and/or can make co-payments. That would not be the case at Providence which is located in a lower income section of the city. GW is in a commercial district with ever-decreasing residential areas taken over by govt/non-profits/NGOs and GW itself, but it’s often the hospital of choice for lower-income and/or uninsured patients to go for treatment.
GW is a teaching/research hospital. And, thanks to Reagan and Cheney family donations (@ $10M between them) among others, GW today is a modern, beautiful facility (when Reagan had his surgery there following the assassination attempt, it was the absolute pits). It also has a Metro stop at its front door so it’s easily accessible from any part of the city.
Bull
It is amazing how little a hospital/doctor will settle for in Medicare.
Now thanks to a government report I don't have to.
The trouble is there are a million variables. Its very difficult to compare hospitals and unless you pay cash it mostly doesnt matter.
Not always. A pacemaker implant is pretty routine; why should it cost twice as much in one place than in another? Knee replacement is also pretty routine, but one hospital in Dallas charged four times as much as the one across town. The story nailed the real reason; hospitals charge whatever they please because there is no visibility in pricing or comparative shopping. What we need is more visibility into how they price their procedures and not less.
There certainly is the ability to do comparison shopping, as long as you have something routine and not emergency.
Some hospitals are better than others. perhaps you had complications at one vs another.
Insurance company apply standard pricing to all hospitals for the equivalent procedure. You can ask for reasonable and customary and they’ll most likely reduce the rate for you.
They are businesses and want to sell their service, again all you have to do is ask the hospital.
I cede to your superior knowledge of the hospitals and prices there. My conjecture was generic in nature. Cost for services in a competetive environment generally equalize or at least become competitive. Universal. It is only when ‘government’ intercedes with some sort of subsidation, open or not, that this tenet becomes inoperative.
Having had several surgical procedures, I can state that in every case the surgeon’s bill has been separate from the hospital bill. In fact, you can shop around for a surgeon (whose office personnel will tell you what he charges), but you cannot shop around for a hospital. NO WAY will anyone in hospital admin tell you how much your stay is going to cost.
And now I don't have to ask the hospital. All I have to do is open the spreadsheet and do some comparison shopping on my own. One of the few things I've seen the government do lately that actually improves my life.
And you would rather trust information from the govt than call up someone who actually has the information from the source?
Yes call up the very people who have been overcharging and ask them. Good plan.
At least the information will be accurate and if you want to request reduced rates you’re already talking to the right person.
Or you could trust the govt who probably collected the data a few years ago and probably got lazy and copied data rather then collect it.
You don’t trust hospitals to give you accurate pricing but trust them to put in a pacemaker?
really?
I trust them to put in the pacemaker. But apparently I can't trust them not to rob me, or my insurance company, blind while doing it.
Why don’t you call a hospital right now and try to get a straight answer on how much they’d charge you for a routine procedure.
Its easy, pick up the handset, press the buttons and speak to a real live person.
Heck they might even send you a listing of what a procedure will likely cost.
Good luck with that.
A friend was knocked off his bicycle by an automobile. Ambulance took him to the hospital and he racked up a $52000 bill in 2 days.
6 weeks later they sent him a letter knocking it down to$2,500 for services rendered. He thinks this is because he has a nothing-none existent credit score. No credit card and has always paid cash. The guy is not poor owns a house and some more. He says the hospital believes he is indigent
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