In Brief: Medicare Hospital Charges Vary Widely, KFF Redesigns Website
CMS: Hospital Medicare Charges Vary Widely Across Nation, California
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released this week an enormous database of the prices hospitals across the nation charge for 100 of the most frequent procedures and treatments, exposing enormous price gaps between institutions in California and elsewhere.
The procedures include treatment for pneumonia, orthopedic surgeries and other common DRGs performed at more than 3,300 hospitals in all 50 states.
“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,” Secretary Sebelius said. “This data and new data centers will help fill that gap.”
In California, some of the differences in charges are stark. The USC Keck Hospital in Los Angeles, for example, charges $123,885 for a joint replacement, far above the regional average and what Medicare actually pays, according to the New York Times. Prime Healthcare Services' Centinela Hospital charges almost $221,000 for the same procedure.
The hospitals were not consulted by the CMS prior to the release of the data. The California Hospital Association blamed the agency in essence for the situation.
“The current hospital pricing and payment systems weren’t designed for individual patients to receive bills directly,” said CHA President C. Duane Dauner. “Rather, they have evolved since the enactment of Medicare in 1965 into what is often a convoluted list of charges for every item or service. Federal Medicare policies have created perverse incentives for hospitals to set their charges high so that they can recoup a portion of their losses on the most complex, costly Medicare patients.”
Dauner encouraged the CMS to relax some regulations in order to reform the current pricing structures.
Kaiser Family Foundation Redesigns Website
The Kaiser Family Foundation has redesigned its website to make it more accessible to a consumer audience.
The redesign replaces a decade-old website that while packed with information, was dominated by small fonts and sometimes disparate landing pages.
The Menlo Park-based Kaiser said it consolidated a variety of data repositories to make it more user-friendly. The redesigned site is now centered around 10 specific health policy topics.
The redesign was done in consultation with WordPress. The site features a bolder color palette and far larger and more interactive graphics.
“The Kaiser Family Foundation always strives to provide the best information on health policy issues,” said foundation Chief Executive Officer Drew Altman. “The new website puts our online information together in a much simpler and more engaging way for the many audiences who rely on us every day.”
