A California study published in the British Medical Journal found the cost of baby births in hospitals can differ by tens of thousands of dollars, and the variation is largely unexplained by market forces.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco studied data for privately insured patients who were admitted to California hospitals in 2011 for uncomplicated vaginal deliveries (76,766 cases) or uncomplicated caesarean sections (32,660 cases).
After adjusting for patient demographic and clinical characteristics, they found the average California woman could be charged as little as $3,296 or as much as $37,227 for a vaginal delivery, and $8,312 to $70,908 for a caesarean section — depending on the hospital to which she was admitted.
"We found that hospitals in markets with middling competition had significantly lower adjusted charges for vaginal deliveries, while hospitals with higher wage indices and case mixes, as well as for-profit hospitals, had higher adjusted charges," the authors wrote. They also found hospitals in markets with higher rates of uninsured patients charged significantly less for caesarean sections, while for-profit hospitals and hospitals with higher wage indices charged more.
Despite these correlations, the researchers found institutional and market-level factors included in their models explained only up to 36 percent of the variation in charges between hospitals.
"These results indicate that charges and discounted prices for two common, relatively homogeneous diagnosis groups — uncomplicated vaginal delivery and caesarean section — vary widely between hospitals and are not well explained by observable patient or hospital characteristics," the study authors concluded.
More Articles on Hospital Prices and Charges:
New York Releases Hospital Charges, Costs
Average Cost Per Inpatient Day Across 50 States in 2010
Unveiling the Cost of Care: How Transparency Changes the Patient Perspective