Study: Local hospital among priciest

Jan. 16--PANAMA CITY -- A study of the nation's hospitals found Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center is one of the 50 most expensive hospitals in the country for uninsured patients, with an average price markup of 980 percent compared to what the procedure would cost someone with Medicare.

The study, conducted by a professor from John Hopkins University and a professor from Washington and Lee University, focused on states that did not expand Medicaid using data from 2013, the most recent year for which data was available.

Florida has 20 of the most expensive hospitals, according to the list, which declared North Okaloosa Medical Center the most expensive for uninsured patients, with a 1,260 percent markup.

Gulf Coast Medical Center responded to the claim with a statement pointing out the amount of charity care it offers, which is not reflected in the study.

"The amount patients pay for hospital services has more to do with the type of coverage they have than the prices listed in the chargemaster," the statement said. "Uninsured patients are eligible for free care through our charity care program or they receive our uninsured discounts, which are similar to the discounts a private insurance plan gets."

Bruce Vogel, an associate professor of Health Outcomes and Policy at the University of Florida, said there is weight to Gulf Coast's explanation.

The study uses gross revenue to calculate the costs, he said, which makes the results look "as outrageous as possible." In reality, most hospitals will make adjustments to the cost for an uninsured patient.

But hospitals listing the unadjusted price on the chargemaster knowing they would accept a lesser amount, often causes the patients unnecessary panic, Vogel said.

"It's bad to enough to have been sick and have had a long hospital stay, but to get a bill that asks for five or six times the money the hospital will settle for is downright cruel," he said in an email. "Hospitals will commonly settle for far less than gross charges when a self-pay patient says that they cannot pay, but the patient who is not savvy about gross vs. net charges will panic, many times unnecessarily."

A better number to look at, he said, is a hospital's revenues reported by the State Agency for Health Care Administration.

Based on those numbers, Gulf Coast is running a profit of 20.3 percent.

"In other words, they are quite profitable," Vogel said.

In comparison, the Health Care Administration numbers show Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart is running in the red, with a negative 9.7 percent revenue.

Bay Medical declined to comment for this story. Instead, they pointed to a press release from 2015 when Verras Healthcare International ranked the hospital number 3 on the Florida Best Value Hospital list.

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