The Chron’s editorial board did a little comparison shopping for a major joint replacement in an SF hospital and found some interesting price discrepancies: they report that the procedure costs $110,305 at St. Francis Memorial Hospital, the same procedure at Cal Pacific will run you $83,538, or you could get it at Kaiser for $48,044.
They’re getting these numbers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ list of what hospitals charge for common inpatient services, data that the Chron says appears intended “to shame hospitals,” as “it’s hard to imagine how this information will be useful to the vast majority of people.”
Want to do some comparison shopping of your own, or just want to participate in the shaming? You can check out the price data for hundreds of US hospitals here.
