Big news this morning, if you hadn't already heard or read about it: The folks who run Medicare released a massive database (a spreadsheet) of Medicare providers (hospitals) and what they charge for various services, and boy some of the discrepancies are huge!
Obviously, this doesn't track outcomes so it's rather difficult to determine the
value of each hospital's cited price. For instance, Hospital A might charge $50K over Hospital B, but A might have a much better rating on outcomes (low complications / mortality) than B.
This
might be useful if you've signed up for Medicare fee-for-service as opposed to HMO service, as your total out-of-pocket could be dramatically affected by your choice of hospital to visit (it's complicated). Mostly, it's just a bit shocking that some procedures involve such wide discrepancies in price, and making this information public would tend to bring pressure on the discrepancies to diminish -- one good way to help lower Medicare costs.
Below, I've listed a handful of procedures and their Medicare covered charges rate, for Portland hospitals. Note that, because Kaiser Permanente facilities are not within Portland proper (e.g. Hillsboro, Gresham, Tualatin), they don't show up.
I've cut down the
CMS' spreadsheet (because dealing with 12MB of data in a spreadsheet requires a lot of patience) to just Oregon / Portland data,
here. Have fun.
| 064 - INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGE OR CEREBRAL INFARCTION W MCC | | |
| Provider Name | Total Discharges | Average Covered Charges |
| ADVENTIST MEDICAL CENTER | 23 | 17,272 |
| PROVIDENCE PORTLAND MEDICAL CENTER | 30 | 24,563 |
| PROVIDENCE ST VINCENT MEDICAL CENTER | 33 | 25,944 |
| LEGACY GOOD SAMARITAN MEDICAL CENTER | 19 | 38,294 |
| LEGACY EMANUEL MEDICAL CENTER | 28 | 42,066 |
| OHSU HOSPITAL AND CLINICS | 43 | 58,131 |
| Difference between lowest and highest = 237% |
| +40,859 |
| 280 - ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION, DISCHARGED ALIVE W MCC | | |
| Provider Name | Total Discharges | Average Covered Charges |
| PROVIDENCE PORTLAND MEDICAL CENTER | 35 | 23,493 |
| PROVIDENCE ST VINCENT MEDICAL CENTER | 46 | 25,162 |
| ADVENTIST MEDICAL CENTER | 33 | 30,952 |
| OHSU HOSPITAL AND CLINICS | 19 | 46,473 |
| LEGACY GOOD SAMARITAN MEDICAL CENTER | 24 | 62,150 |
| Difference between lowest and highest = 165% |
| +38,657 |
| 329 - MAJOR SMALL & LARGE BOWEL PROCEDURES W MCC | | |
| Provider Name | Total Discharges | Average Covered Charges |
| LEGACY GOOD SAMARITAN MEDICAL CENTER | 15 | 66,620 |
| PROVIDENCE PORTLAND MEDICAL CENTER | 24 | 94,329 |
| PROVIDENCE ST VINCENT MEDICAL CENTER | 27 | 98,663 |
| OHSU HOSPITAL AND CLINICS | 32 | 211,535 |
| Difference between lowest and highest = 218% |
| +144,915 |
| 460 - SPINAL FUSION EXCEPT CERVICAL W/O MCC | | |
| Provider Name | Total Discharges | Average Covered Charges |
| PROVIDENCE ST VINCENT MEDICAL CENTER | 37 | 51,183 |
| LEGACY GOOD SAMARITAN MEDICAL CENTER | 11 | 58,662 |
| ADVENTIST MEDICAL CENTER | 54 | 58,903 |
| PROVIDENCE PORTLAND MEDICAL CENTER | 62 | 60,598 |
| OHSU HOSPITAL AND CLINICS | 73 | 66,178 |
| LEGACY EMANUEL MEDICAL CENTER | 12 | 80,982 |
| Difference between lowest and highest = 58.2% |
| +29,799 |
| 853 - INFECTIOUS & PARASITIC DISEASES W O.R. PROCEDURE W MCC | | |
| Provider Name | Total Discharges | Average Covered Charges |
| PROVIDENCE PORTLAND MEDICAL CENTER | 17 | 98,265 |
| PROVIDENCE ST VINCENT MEDICAL CENTER | 17 | 103,712 |
| LEGACY GOOD SAMARITAN MEDICAL CENTER | 18 | 115,330 |
| OHSU HOSPITAL AND CLINICS | 24 | 137,255 |
| LEGACY EMANUEL MEDICAL CENTER | 11 | 179,489 |
| Difference between lowest and highest = 82.7% |
| +81,224 |
| 870 - SEPTICEMIA OR SEVERE SEPSIS W MV 96+ HOURS | | |
| Provider Name | Total Discharges | Average Covered Charges |
| LEGACY GOOD SAMARITAN MEDICAL CENTER | 18 | 119,505 |
| PROVIDENCE PORTLAND MEDICAL CENTER | 12 | 154,280 |
| Difference between lowest and highest = 29% |
| +34,775 |
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