By
Melanie
Evans Modern
Healthcare FiDA highlight
Posted:
February 11, 2013 - 12:01 am ET
Hip replacement surgery prices varied
by more than $110,000 across the U.S.—at least, for hospitals and physician offices
that provided prices when asked, a newly published survey shows.
Not
all hospitals surveyed provided prices, and among those that did, not all could
quote the price for hospital and physician fees, and some did so only after
repeated phone calls, researchers wrote in Journal of the American Medical Association Internal
Medicine online.
“Obtaining
pricing information was difficult and frequently required multiple
conversations with numerous staff members at each hospital as well as
affiliated physician offices,” the study said. More than one-fourth of hospitals didn't quote a price
until at least the third call. (Researchers called up to five times for
a price.) Often, hospital employees were confused, uncertain and did not return
messages, the authors wrote. “It
is sobering to compare our experience with the best practices we have come to
expect from other service industries.”
Meanwhile,
prices “varied nearly 10-fold across hospitals” despite a standardized request.
The total price, including hospital and physician fees, ranged from $12,500 to
$105,000 among the top-ranked hospitals and $11,100 and $125,798 among randomly
selected U.S. hospitals.
Researchers
called two randomly selected hospitals in each state plus the U.S. News and
World Report top 20 hospitals for orthopedic surgery. Hospitals were asked for the lowest price,
including physician fees, for a hip replacement for a 62-year-old woman with no
other conditions and no insurance.
Prices
may have varied depending on whether hospitals quoted the sticker price or offered
a discount or because of amenities or other differences, the authors said.
Nineteen
hospitals, including nine top-ranked hospitals, quoted researchers a bundled
price for hospital and physician services.
Another
19 hospitals failed to provide any prices, including three top-ranked
hospitals. Some hospital patients must first see a doctor. Others said prices
could not be provided over the phone. And some said “they had no way to provide
such an estimate,” the authors wrote.
Another
57 hospitals and physician offices provided prices separately, which allowed
researchers to come up with an estimated price.
Researchers
obtained a partial price for the remaining hospitals.
Hospitals
may have not responded to the push for price transparency by policymakers and
health insurers, which have increased the financial incentives for households
to shop around, the researchers wrote.
Last
year, one-quarter of U.S. workers were covered by health plans with a
deductible of at least $1,000, compared with 6% of workers six years ago,
according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Some health plans now cover surgery with a lump sum,
known as a fixed-dollar contribution; patients
must pay the difference between the insurance payment and the price of
surgery.
“Our
results suggest that such efforts at pricing transparency have not been well
integrated into the operations at many hospitals,” the paper said.
Read more: Hip surgery prices hard to obtain: study | Modern
Healthcare http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130211/NEWS/302119966#ixzz2KcH8gywe
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