BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC)- Today we got our first-ever comprehensive look at what hospitals around the country charge for different procedures, and the newly-released data shows some big gaps in what different hospitals in our area charge for the same procedure.
Hospitals protect this cost information like KFC protects its recipe, but as part of the healthcare overhaul, the government today released thousands of pages of documents showing what hospitals charge Medicare and Medicaid for different procedures.
Before we show you the data, there are a couple of important things to remember.
These costs are what the hospitals charge the government, not what they charge healthcare insurance companies who often negotiate deep discounts as part of their contracts.
And as you'll see, there is a big difference between what a hospital charges and what the government ends up actually paying.