CMS dataset reveals hospital pricing for 100 services

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released data showing significant variation among U.S. hospitals in charges for the same services.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a three-part initiative on May 8 that for the first time gives consumers information on what hospitals charge. HHS also made approximately $87 million available to states to enhance their rate review programs and further healthcare pricing transparency. 

In an example of how these data might be used, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is planning a data visualization challenge which will further the dissemination of these data to larger audiences.

The database, posted on the CMS website, is described as “part of the Obama administration's work to make our healthcare system more affordable and accountable.” It includes hospital charges for the 100 most frequently billed discharges by the more than 3,000 hospitals reimbursed under the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS).

The charges for implanting a pacemaker, for example, range from about $20,000 to more than $200,000. The data, the agency said, represent 7 million discharges, or 60 percent of the total Medicare IPPS discharges in fiscal 2011.

“Currently, consumers don’t know what a hospital is charging them or their insurance company for a given procedure, like a knee replacement, or how much of a price difference there is at different hospitals, even within the same city,” Sebelius said in a release. “This data and new data centers will help fill that gap.” 

To make these data useful to consumers, HHS also provides funding to data centers to collect, analyze and publish health pricing and medical claims reimbursement data. The data centers aim to help consumers better understand the comparative price of procedures in a given region or for a specific health insurer or service setting.

View the new hospital dataset or read a fact sheet about the Medicare data.