Two pediatrician groups in Anchorage, Alaska, have stopped performing circumcisions at Alaska Regional Hospital after discovering it charges $2,110 for the procedure, according to a Kaiser Health News report.
Meanwhile, Providence Hospital — another Anchorage care provider — charges only $235 for a circumcision. Dr. Charles Ryan of Anchorage Pediatric Group told Kaiser he was shocked by Alaska Regional's price. He and his partners no longer perform circumcisions at the hospital. LaTouche Pediatrics, another local physician group, has also stopped performing most circumcisions there, according to the report.
Significant variations in hospital pricing took center stage in May of this year when CMS released data on the top 100 most frequently billed inpatient discharges for the 3,000-plus hospitals that are paid under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system.
The data revealed hospitals charge dramatically different amounts in some cases for the same procedure. For example, Medicare charges for major joint replacements without complications or death ranged from a low of $5,304 at Chicksaw Nation Medical Center in Ada, Okla., to a high of $223,373 at Monterey Park (Calif.) Hospital.
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