HealthGrades.com Launches Medical Cost Reports
HospitalBuyer just covered how the US federal government plans to make public how much it pays for some procedures. Today web site HealthGrades.com starts publishing cost reports on 40+ procedures (mostly common surgery operations and biopsies). These reports, priced at $7.95, are personalized based on zip code, age, gender, and insurance coverage. They include procedure, drugs, and hospital stay, and show what insurance companies pay.
Two main issues arise. First, consumers need to understand that not all hospitals deliver the same quality of service and different doctors proceed in different ways. Surgery is a service and very much not a fungible commodity, so pricing information would be more useful if provided alongside with quality metrics (which themselves are increasingly collected and released to the public). Second, higher fees might reflect a variety of things, including the cost structure of a hospital engaged in doctor tuition or care for uninsured, poor people. Shopping for the best bargains might hurt the ability of these facilities to continue providing these services. The AP has additional details.
March 20, 2006 Related topics: Trends