New York – As part of an ongoing effort by the Obama administration to address accountability and affordability in the nation’s health care system, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released data from 2011 which shows vast differences in the amounts billed for the same procedures by Brooklyn area hospitals.
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The BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE (http://bit.ly/146iRu9) reports that similar disparities run nationally in the report covering the 100 most common treatments at 3,300 hospitals nationwide.
As one example, the CMS report says that for a person suffering a “stroke,” who also suffers from “multiple chronic conditions,” New York Community Hospital on Kings Highway charged the least—billing Medicare an average of $32,433, while on the high end, Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Cobble Hill billed $97,668 for the same treatment.
According to the report, many variables factor into each hospital’s billing practices, and that non-profit hospitals generally bill less than profit-making medical centers.
There must be transparency and standardization of such costs. The hospitals are ripping us off!
New York Community Hospital, a privately owned hospital that is profitable billed $32,433, while Long Island College Hospital (LICH) which is State owned and losing money billed $97,668 for the same treatment.
The solution is obvious, privatize.