You’re enjoying a quiet weekend at home when suddenly you double over in pain. You need emergency appendectomy surgery. How much should it cost? And how much price shopping are you able to do?
According to a provocative new UCSF analysis, patients are all too often left in the dark about how and what hospitals charge for their medical care – even in the face of a mounting push nationally for consumers to have a voice in how their health care dollars are spent.
One of the very basic functions of any health care system should be that getting sick doesn’t jeopardize you financially.Renee Y. Hsia, MD
The study looked at nearly 20,000 cases of routine appendicitis at 289 hospitals and medical centers throughout California. The patients — all adults — were admitted for three or fewer days.
The researchers uncovered an enormous discrepancy in what different hospitals charge, ranging from a low of $1,529 to a high of nearly $183,000. The median hospital charge was $33,611. The startling cost variation reveals a “broken system,’’ the authors said.
The article is published online this week in Archives of Internal Medicine.
Read more at UCSF.edu