I'm not sure about you but nothing hurts more than buying something and then finding out shortly thereafter that I have overpaid. Ouch! The problem in healthcare is consumers have no idea the cost of anything and for the most part nor do the employers they work for. That is how the 'passive' system works.
Here is a list of common procedures and costs in Massachusetts:
| Top Procedures Performed at Boston Hospitals | |||
| Procedure | Low Price | High Price | Savings |
| Angioplasty Procedure | $39,500 | $108,400 | $68,900 |
| Ankle Replacement | $18,100 | $49,800 | $31,700 |
| Arthroscopic Knee Surgery | $3,600 | $9,800 | $6,200 |
| Arthroscopic Shoulder Surgery | $5,400 | $14,900 | $9,500 |
| Breast Reconstruction After Mastectomy | $19,000 | $52,000 | $33,000 |
| Bunionectomy | $6,900 | $18,900 | $12,000 |
| Cardiac Stent | $33,200 | $91,100 | $57,900 |
| Cataract | $1,400 | $3,800 | $2,400 |
| Cochlear Implant | $60,100 | $165,300 | $105,200 |
| Colonoscopy | $1,400 | $4,600 | $3,200 |
| Corneal Transplant | $6,100 | $16,800 | $10,700 |
| Coronary Bypass Surgery | $61,100 | $168,000 | $106,900 |
| CT Scan | $675 | $1,750 | $1,075 |
| Defibrillator | $72,800 | $200,200 | $127,400 |
| Disc Replacement Surgery | $23,500 | $64,500 | $41,000 |
| Diskectomy | $17,900 | $49,000 | $31,100 |
| Ear Tube Surgery | $3,700 | $10,100 | $6,400 |
| Echo | $470 | $1,250 | $780 |
| EKG | $380 | $1,000 | $620 |
| Endoscopy | $1,450 | $4,800 | $3,350 |
| Essure Birth Control | $5,300 | $14,500 | $9,200 |
| Eye Shunt | $4,600 | $12,600 | $8,000 |
| Foot Repair Surgery | $13,500 | $37,100 | $23,600 |
| Hammertoe Correction | $8,400 | $23,100 | $14,700 |
| Hernia Repair Surgery | $6,600 | $15,700 | $9,100 |
| Hip Replacement | $19,300 | $53,000 | $33,700 |
| Knee Replacement Surgery | $17,400 | $47,600 | $30,200 |
| Kyphoplasty | $16,500 | $45,200 | $28,700 |
| Laparoscopic Hysterectomy | $2,925 | $7,900 | $4,975 |
| Laparoscopy, Cholecystectomy (Gallbladder Removal) | $5,800 | $13,600 | $7,800 |
| Lithotripsy (Kidney Stone Removal) | $5,000 | $13,700 | $8,700 |
| Mammogram | $90 | $220 | $130 |
| MRA | $1,100 | $2,775 | $1,675 |
| MRI | $600 | $1,550 | $950 |
| Pacemaker | $30,100 | $82,800 | $52,700 |
| PET Scan | $1,800 | $4,600 | $2,800 |
| Septoplasty Surgery | $8,900 | $24,300 | $15,400 |
| Sleep Study | $850 | $2,175 | $1,325 |
| Spinal Cord Stimulator | $23,300 | $64,000 | $40,700 |
| Spinal Fusion | $34,900 | $95,800 | $60,900 |
| Spinal Instrumentation | $17,500 | $48,100 | $30,600 |
| Stress Test | $1,150 | $2,925 | $1,775 |
| Ultrasound | $140 | $350 | $210 |
| Urinary Incontinence Treatment | $9,800 | $26,700 | $16,900 |
| Urinary Stent | $8,100 | $22,100 | $14,000 |
| Uterine Ablation | $5,600 | $15,400 | $9,800 |
| Vaginal Prosthesis Implantation | $7,500 | $20,600 | $13,100 |
| Vagus Nerve Stimulation | $16,000 | $44,000 | $28,000 |
| Vertebroplasty | $6,500 | $17,800 | $11,300 |
| Wrist Surgery | $2,925 | $8,000 | $5,075 |
| X-Ray | $150 | $390 | $240 |
| $659,005 | $1,804,585 | $1,145,580 | |
Right now a few things should be going through your mind:
1. Yikes!
2. Low cost must be low quality.
3. How can I have any impact on this?
The truth is you should be shocked. Many healthcare services have price differentiation greater than 500%. The interesting thing is that often the low cost provider is the higher quality provider. This makes sense if you think about it. When someone gets good at doing something they are more efficient. They use less materials and get better outcomes. For example the risk of infection and complications will certainly be lower when a surgery is performed by surgeon who performs 1000 hip replacement per year versus the surgeon who does 100.
How can you do something with this newfound knowledge? Easy, if you are an employer with 50 or more employees on your medical plan, build yourself a custom, high performance healthcare plan that allows you to steer employees to high quality low cost providers (you don't have to do it yourself, trained professionals can do it for you). It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. The old saying 'It's the price stupid' rules in healthcare. Be the smart one and take action.
