Hospital Billing Varies Wildly, Government Data Shows

The New York Times  |  By BARRY MEIER, JO CRAVEN McGINTY and JULIE CRESWELL  |  May 8, 2013 A hospital in Livingston, N.J., charged $70,712 on average to implant a pacemaker, while a hospital in nearby Rahway, N.J., charged $101,945.  The government has released data on bills submitted from virtually every hospital in the country in 2011 for the 100 most common treatments and procedures performed in hospitals. Above, a hip replacement surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2011. In Saint Augustine, Fla., one hospital typically billed nearly $40,000 to remove a gallbladder using minimally invasive surgery, while one in Orange Park, Fla., charged $91,000.  In one hospital in Dallas, the average bill for treating simple pneumonia was $14,610, while another there charged over $38,000.  Data being released for the first time by the government on Wednesday shows that hospitals charge Medicare wildly differing amounts — sometimes 10 to 20 times what Medicare typically reimburses — for the same procedure, raising questions about how hospitals determine prices and why they differ so widely.   Read more