Wide variations seen in charges by hospitals [NJBIZ (NJ)]

BRIEFS

Last week the federal government released its database of the list prices hospitals post - but don't usually collect - for everything from a hip replacement to heart failure, and the numbers revealed wide variations among hospitals statewide.

New Jersey Hospital Association spokesman Kerry McKean Kelly said most patients are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, commercial insurers or the state's charity care program, "which pay hospitals at rates much lower than these posted charges." She estimated that about 4.5 percent of New Jersey hospital consumers may potentially be billed the charge price.

Ward Sanders, president of the New Jersey Asso ciati on of Health Plans, said consumers with out- of- network insurance benefits can face substantial outof-pocket costs that are based on the out-of-network hospital's charges, which "have a real impact on these consumers."

Sanders said that under state law a patient who goes to an outof-network hospital emergency room can't be billed at higher than their in-network rates, but the hospital can recoup the charges from the insurer. -Beth Fitzgerald