Hospitalists unaware of inpatient costs, study says
Hospitalist Leadership Connection, July 27, 2010
Although hospitalists have been known to cut hospital costs, a new study finds that hospitalists are unaware of the actual costs of care to inpatients, according to “Hospitalists’ awareness of patient charges associated with inpatient care,” published in the June issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
Researchers at the University of Washington, School of Medicine in Spokane, asked hospitalists how much a hypothetical self-paying patient would be billed for commonly used services, procedures, tests, and physician charges. They found that only 10% of hospitalists were within a 10% accuracy rate.
“Patients have been demonstrated to have little access to knowledge of what care will cost them and complex barriers prevent them from gaining pricing information,” states the study. “Hospitalists may be conjectured to serve as expert sources on the costs and values of medical care services on behalf of inpatients, but our observations suggest that hospitalists' actual knowledge of patient charges is lacking.”
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