Study Reveals Wild Disparities in American Hospital Pricing

On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a massive spreadsheet containing a comparison of what hospitals across the country bill for the 100 most popular medical procedures. The document revealed wild disparities in pricing from hospital to hospital.

The figures also show a wide disparity in costs for a few procedures at three hospitals in Champaign, Urbana, and Danville. In Friday's Champaign News-Gazette, reporter Debra Pressey looked through some of the figures, and gauged reaction from the Illinois Hospital Association. Illinois Public Media’s Jeff Bossert talked with Pressey.

NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with Princeton professor Uwe Reinhardt, who studies health care economics, about how the American hospital system evolved this way.