Hospital Prices and Health Spending Among the Privately Insured

摘要

The cost of an MRI of the lower limbs varies by a factor of 12 between the most and least expensive hospitals in the United States for patients who are covered by employer-sponsored health insurance. Similar disparities are observed for many other standard procedures. For patients covered by Medicare, under which prices are regulated by the federal government, the price disparities are much smaller, and the range of prices typically varies by less than a factor of three.