Demanding a federal budget that is fair, responsible, and meets our nation's priorities

Thursday, June 14, 2007

NYT: Health Care Pricing Problems

A good article in the New York Times today, on the disconnect between price and quality of health care services:

Stark evidence that high medical payments do not necessarily buy high-quality patient care is presented in a hospital study set for release today.

In a Pennsylvania government survey of the state's 60 hospitals that perform heart bypass surgery, the best-paid hospital received nearly $100,000, on average, for the operation while the least-paid got less than $20,000. At both, patients had comparable lengths of stay and death rates.

And among the 20 hospitals serving metropolitan Philadelphia, two of the highest paid actually had higher-than-expected death rates, the survey found.