Findings
What the published price files say.
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The Five Best (and Three Worst) NYC-Area Hospitals for Value of Care
135 hospitals within 50 miles of midtown Manhattan, ranked by quality for the price
Of the 135 hospitals within 50 miles of midtown, five stand out for high quality at low published prices, led by Hospital for Special Surgery (Main Campus) at 0.52x the regional median with 5-star quality. Three combine the opposite: 1-2 star quality at 2.3x…
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A Colonoscopy Runs $175 to $7,684
$175 to $7,684 typical commercial rate, diagnostic colonoscopy (CPT 45378)
Across 145 hospitals reporting 3 or more commercial payers, the median negotiated rate for a diagnostic colonoscopy is $2,306. GENEVA GENERAL HOSPITAL posts $175. CAPITAL HEALTH - HOPEWELL posts $7,684. The 90th-percentile hospital charges 6.7x the…
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Profitable Hospitals are Not More Expensive
r = 0.05 correlation between operating margin and price (n=262)
Operating margin is not associated with price: profitable and unprofitable hospitals charge about the same. High prices are not explained by financial need. Each point below is one hospital; the fit line is nearly flat.
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Extreme Price Spread on Common Procedures
14x echocardiogram spread, 90th vs 10th percentile hospital
A standard echocardiogram (CPT 93306) runs $187 at Noyes Memorial in Dansville, NY and $4,734 at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. The regional median is $649 across 78 hospitals. A routine EKG tracing (CPT 93005) runs $8.35 to $246 across 71 hospitals…
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System Affiliation is the #1 Price Predictor
22% of regional price variation explained by health-system membership
Which system a hospital belongs to explains 22% of price variation across the region, more than any other measurable factor. Ownership type explains 4%; teaching status and bed size each explain less than 1%. The remaining 72% is contract-specific: the deals…
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Our Data Validated Against Employer Claims
ρ = 0.68 rank agreement with RAND employer-claims data (n=85)
Two ways of measuring the same thing agree. Our rankings come from the prices hospitals publish; RAND's come from what employers actually paid in claims. Each point below is one hospital ranked both ways, cheapest to priciest. Perfect agreement would put…
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Commercial Prices are 2-3x Medicare
1.9 to 2.6x commercial rates vs Medicare, two independent measurements
RAND employer claims show commercial prices averaging 2.6x Medicare rates. Our MRF data measures 1.9x. The figure varies by hospital and procedure, but commercial premiums over Medicare are universal.