Analysis Confirms Hospitals Are Charging Uninsured Americans Higher Prices

A new analysis of hospital pricing data made available earlier this year has confirmed that hospitals are charging non-insured Americans higher prices for the same services that their insured counterparts receive. This also proves that pricing for services is arbitrary for these institutions, adding a new, complicated layer to the healthcare debates in this country. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening and what needs to happen now.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

According to a new analysis of data made available earlier this year, hospitals are routinely charging uninsured patients more than what they're charging insured patients. So before we get into the, to the statistics, to all the nitty gritty of this, let me just explain what that statement alone means. It means that not only do we have a problem of affordability with healthcare here in the United States, we already know that, even people with health insurance are often saying, I still can't afford to go to the doctor. I still can't afford my medication, yada, yada, yada. But the uninsured people, they're not even having to pay the same prices that the insured people are. They're having to pay even more for the same service. So let's say insured individual number one goes in and has an MRI on their knee. The insurance company gets billed $5,000 for it. Let's say uninsured individual goes in, has the same MRI, same suspected problem on the same knee, same hospital, same day, same doctor, same technician, same everybody.

But they get charged 8,000 for the same procedure. That's what this story is saying. That's what the analysis is because again, earlier this year, an order went into effect that said hospitals had to make publicly available how much they were charging patients. So this is all based on the information that came out once hospitals had to release this data. So here's the key findings of this analysis. This is from the Wall Street Journal. Hospitals routinely bill uninsured patients at their highest rates, not just a higher rate, their highest rates, about 21% or 319 of the hospitals did so for the majority of the services included in the analysis. At 171 of those hospitals, the cash rate was higher than all of the rates billed to insurers or tied for the highest rate for every service in the analysis, everything across the board. On average, across the 1,166 hospitals that included rates for Medicare advantage plans in their disclosures, the fees for uninsured patients were 3.6 times the average rates paid by the Medicare advantage plans, 3.6 times more.

Some dominant local and regional non-profits including Mass General Brigham based in Boston and Avera based in Sioux Falls South Dakota, billed the uninsured at their general hospitals some of their highest prices while also setting some of the most restrictive financial aid policies for free care nationwide. Cash prices, which haven't been available publicly to help patients choose where to seek medical care often vary widely, even among hospitals in the same county. In the 270 counties where at least two hospitals have disclosed their cash prices, the average spread between the lowest and highest rates for a complex emergency room visit is $1,852. You know what this story tells me, not only that we have an even greater healthcare crisis here in the United States than we thought, and we need universal healthcare now, but it also shows me that this pricing, you know, these exorbitant crazy rates we're paying for healthcare in the United States, it's all arbitrary. It's all arbitrary. They just make this up. A random person comes in and they say, uh, $3,000.

Sure, $3,000. Next person, what you got, uh, hmm, seven grand. You're seven grand. You're 20 grand.