Big price differences for common surgeries: How to pay eight times more for new knees
CNBC
By Dan Mangan
January 4, 2018
The prices paid in Minnesota for several common surgical procedures vary dramatically depending on the hospital where the operation occurs, a new report has found.
And that finding could lead some employers in that state to start making changes to how much they are willing to pay for those services — and where their insured employees can have the procedures done with coverage.
A total knee replacement operation, for example, can cost as low as around $6,200 in one Minnesota hospital — but as much as nearly $47,000 in another, according to the analysis.
That higher price is almost eight times greater than the lowest price.
And a cesarean section delivery of a baby can cost almost five times more at the highest priced hospital, $22,831, than it does at the lowest-priced hospital, $4,693.
For a traditional delivery, the highest price identified in the report was $12,303, or more than four times the lowest price, or $2,872.
For a total hip replacement, the highest price at a Minnesota hospital was $38,409, more than five times the lowest price of $6,666.