CMS Data Shows Hospital Charges Vary Significantly

In addition, HHS said it will dole out $87 million to states to create data centers, which will aim to beef up hospital rate review programs and post healthcare pricing and reimbursement data.
"Currently, consumers don't know what a hospital is charging them or their insurance company for a given procedure, like a knee replacement, or how much of a price difference there is at different hospitals, even within the same city," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a news release. "This data and new data centers will help fill that gap.
The data vary wildly among hospitals across the country. Medicare charges for major joint replacements without complications or death ranged from a low of $5,304 at Chicksaw Nation Medical Center in Ada, Okla., to a high of $223,373 at Monterey Park (Calif.) Hospital. Routine implants of pacemakers ranged from a low of $15,128 at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Md., to a high of $167,628 at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, Ill.

The federal government's move comes as the healthcare price transparency movement in the U.S. hits a tipping point. Earlier this year, journalist Steven Brill wrote a 36-page investigative report for TIME that covered the hospital and health insurance market and why healthcare costs are so high. In a new post, Mr. Brill wrote that a CMS spokesperson told him the announcement of the hospital billing data is partly in response to his article.
More Articles on Hospital Price Transparency:
Price Transparency: Why It's an Issue & Where Hospitals Fit in
Will Hospital Price Transparency Drive Up Healthcare Costs?
AHA Supports Bill That Would Require Hospitals to Post Prices
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