"Big disparity in blood test costs; One hospital charged $10, but another charged $10,000 for same test" by Lena H. Sun | Washington Post August 16, 2014
WASHINGTON — Imagine walking into a hospital and being charged more than $10,000 for a blood test to check your cholesterol level. And going to another hospital in the same state and being charged $10 for the same test. That was what a team led by a University of California San Francisco researcher found when it looked at prices California hospitals charge for 10 common blood tests....
Senior researcher Renee Hsia, associate professor of emergency medicine at UCSF and director of health policy studies at the Department of Emergency Medicine, studies disparities in health costs. But even Hsia, who is also an emergency physician at San Francisco General Hospital, was taken aback at the differences.
‘‘I was very surprised.’’
Unlike other medical services or procedures that might vary by patient or doctor, these blood tests are common, simple, and standard procedures.
In general, county hospitals and teaching hospitals had lower prices than non-teaching hospitals, not-for-profit, and for-profit hospitals, she said.
The study’s main conclusion is that there is no clear explanation for the price differences, Hsia said.
Sure there is, doc. You just aren't looking.
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