For example, the cost for routine delivery at St. Luke’s The Woodlands (Texas) Hospital is twice the cost for Christus St. Catherine Hospital in Katy, Texas, which is 50 miles away, according to the news report. The huge disparities in healthcare costs exist because a payment formula means every Texas hospital is entitled to a unique payment rate.
Legislators opposing the payment formula believe Texas hospitals should receive a single rate, with some flexibility for children’s hospitals and state-owned teaching hospitals, according to the news report. Proponents of the single rate say such a payment system would reap $74 million in savings over the next two years.
Most hospitals, on the other hand, are strongly opposed to a single base rate, saying it wouldn’t take into account hospital-specific expenditures that are necessary to operate each facility. Joel T. Allison, president and CEO of Baylor Health Care System, said Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas alone must account for the high cost of its trauma and neonatal units. Other hospitals that agree with a single base rate believe the payment system could be workable as long as legislators take into account allowances and are understanding about increasing living and capital expenses, according to the news report.
Read the news report about healthcare costs in Texas Hospitals.
Read other coverage about healthcare costs:
– Massachusetts Governor Propsoes ACOs to Contain Costs
– Kotlikoff: Healthcare is Bankrupt, Country Needs to Start From Scratch With Reform
– Report: U.S. Hospitals Billed $1.2 Trillion in 2008
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