Prices for initiating care at hospital trauma centers vary wildly across hospitals, sometimes leading to patients with insurance paying more than those without coverage, according to a new study.
Prices associated with readying doctors and other personnel for trauma cases varied 16-fold in 2023 across 761 hospitals studied, according to a peer-reviewed research letter published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Among Level 1 trauma centers, the median cash price for what are known as trauma activation fees was 25% lower than the median rate hospitals negotiated with insurers in 2023, the letter found.
Related: Hospital 'trauma centers' charge enormous fees to treat minor injuries and send people home
Researchers used the hospital price transparency data, stemming from a law that went into effect in 2021, to analyze chargemaster, cash and negotiated prices associated with emergency care.
“Policymakers should give patients the option to pay the cash price if the negotiated price is higher,” said Ge Bai, an accounting and health policy professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the research letter. "Some states don't allow that."
States including Texas and Tennessee allow patients to pay cash prices and apply them to their deductible if those rates are lower than the average in-network price. More states, and the federal government, should pass similar legislation, Bai said.
Researchers did not analyze any correlation between prices and care quality, service offerings or hospital-ownership structure.
