Hospital Charges Not Tied to Quality of Care, Analysts Say

A new analysis from San Francisco-based healthcare transparency firm Castlight Health has found that more expensive hospital charges do not necessarily correlate with higher quality care, according to a Kaiser Health News report.

Castlight compared hospitals' charges in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., for joint replacement without major complications. Overall, the analysts found no statistical relationship between cost and quality. For instance, the most expensive high-quality hospital will replace a patient's knee for less than the most expensive average and low-quality hospitals in Boston and Washington, D.C.

Castlight also found no significant connection between the cost and quality of care for pregnancy and delivery services, based on data from the nonprofit Leapfrog Group.

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