Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Medicare data shows wide discrepancies in what hospitals charge.

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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