The Most Expensive Hospitals -- State By State; Report Unveils Top 10 Hospitals for Every U.S. State 6/13/2003
From: Charles Idelson of the California Nurses Association, 510-273-2246 or 415-559-8991 (pg/cell); http://www.calnurse.org OAKLAND, Calif., June 13 -- The 10 most expensive hospitals in every U.S. state, measured by how much they mark up their gross charges over costs, are listed today in an expanded research report by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy (IHSP) commissioned by the California Nurses Association. The findings issued today are an extension of a comprehensive IHSP research study released earlier this week. The first report featured the nation's 100 most and least expensive hospitals. Today's report expands the most expensive list to 500 -- with the top 10 in each state. All the findings are based on federal cost reports with aggregated data for millions of patient discharges in fiscal years 2000-2001 filed for nearly 4,300 U.S. hospitals. The data covers all charges, to Medicare, to HMOs or other health plans, and to individuals without health coverage, for all in-patient and out-patient services and other financial categories, such as medical supplies. Overall, the report documents a link between what hospitals charge and how much they make. It finds a direct correlation between high hospital markups over costs and higher hospital profits or net income. The 100 hospitals with the highest average gross charges also had the greatest average profits, while the bottom 100, on average, reported financial losses. Linkages are also shown to economic concentration in the hospital industry -- hospitals that are part of large corporate chains dominate both the national top 100 list and the top 10 for each state. Large hospitals, as measured by bed size, also tended to have higher markups of charges over costs. All the findings are available on the CNA website, http://www.calnurse.org. It includes: -- The top 10 most expensive hospitals for every U.S. state. -- The top 100 most expensive and 100 least expensive nationally. -- Charts showing the correlation between hospital charges and profits. -- The full research report. |