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Report: Costly care doesn't produce high-quality care

Quality Improvement Monitor, June 15, 2007

A new study has found high medical payments do not necessarily buy high-quality care, according to The New York Times.

A review of 60 hospitals that perform heart bypass surgery found that the best-paid hospital received nearly $100,000 and the least expensive got less than $20,000, according to the Pennsylvania government study. At both, patients had comparable lengths of stay and death rates, the Times reported.

Among the 20 hospitals in metropolitan Philadelphia, two of the highest paid actually had higher-than-expected death rates, the survey found.

"For most consumers, the fact that there is no connection between quality and cost is one of the dirty secrets of medicine," Peter V. Lee, chief executive of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a California group of employers that provide health care coverage for worker, told the paper.

Some Pennsylvania employers said the state's findings, based on data from 2005, might put more pressure on insurance carriers and hospitals to start demonstrating the value of care.

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