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This is cool and, I believe, a necessary step. I know that some hospital price data has been previously available for years on govt websites listed by billing
by bumby 4y ago
This is cool and, I believe, a necessary step.
I know that some hospital price data has been previously available for years on govt websites listed by billing code. You could, for example, see the price differential between getting a procedure done in Alabama vs. Oregon. This article states that hospital data was only available after 2019. Is the distinction that the previous data was only based on Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements? Or that they weren't itemized lists?
- wswope 4y agoSounds like you’re talking about Medicare rates. A lot of hospitals and payors use them as the basis for their price lists, but unless you’re an actual Medicare patient it’s probably not what you’re actually paying. This data is collected from hospital “chargemasters” - which lay out the maximum amount a hospital will charge for a given procedure. However, hospitals have negotiated rates with payors that are almost always less than the chargemaster rate and are kept private. As a broad generalization, you can think of Medicare prices as the minimum a hospital will normally charge, and the chargemaster rate as a legally-enforced maximum.