From page 12 of the Senate HCR bill:
Each hospital operating within the United States shall for each year establish (and update) and make public (in accordance with guidelines developed by the Secretary) a list of the hospital’s standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital, including for diagnosis-related groups.
Wonderful. I’d also appreciate a list of reasons someone might pay appreciably (5%?) more or less than that particular price if it comes out that there is an appreciable (5%?) amount of people who end up paying more or less than that.Report
Insurance companies can get better prices b/c they bring more customers to the hospital, i.e. a volume discount. Many times a mark up in costs is due to the fact that a hospital has to make up for the the fact the Medicaid and Medicare don’t reimburse a hospital the full value of a procedure, so the hospital has to increase the price of another good or service. The article below is a god example.
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091221/CAPITOLNEWS/912210311Report
Very true. Similarly, smaller carriers often have to make up the difference that is lost to a provider from a negotiation with a larger carrier.Report