Crouse starts posting prices on common medical procedures

SYRACUSE — Just how much could that upcoming surgery cost?

Saying it’s the first Central New York hospital to do so, Crouse Hospital has posted the average prices for its “most common” medical procedures on its website.

Estimated average prices for more than 300 medical services are included on the site, according to Crouse.

It includes inpatient and outpatient procedures, obstetrics procedures, robotic-surgery procedures, and medical and other surgical procedures.

The information is available at www.crouse.org/prices.

For example, the estimated average price of delivering a baby at Crouse is more than $3,800. The average Medicaid payment for that procedure is nearly $1,800, while the average insurance payment is more than $2,100, according to the site.

Crouse Hospital has been thinking about this since the summer of last year, since it could soon become a federal mandate, says Kelli Harris, CFO of Crouse Hospital.

“We started working on it in the fall, so it’s taken about nine months for us to gather all the data, look at the data, research other facilities, what are other facilities within the state and outside the state doing and really tweaking the website,” says Harris.

She spoke with the Business Journal News Network on July 17, Crouse wanted to be a “pioneer” with the project, she says.

“We had a core group of about five individuals spanning across information technology, finance, the business office, communications,” she adds.

The process didn’t cost Crouse any money because “in-house” staff members handled the project, says Robert Allen, vice president of communications & government affairs at Crouse, who joined Harris for the interview.

“We didn’t use any outside consultants or outside web-development people. We just utilized our own internal resources,” says Allen

Crouse announced the availability of the average-price information in a July 1 news release. The work on placing the information on the website continued through the last week in June, according to Harris.

“[A potential patient] would see from the day that they were admitted to the day that they’re discharged the average price of their whole stay,” she adds.

Prices listed on the website may vary based on pre-existing health conditions, severity of the illness, and the actual procedure performed, Harris noted.

In addition, prices listed do not include physician fees, which individual providers typically bill separately from the hospital’s charges, according to Crouse.

Examples include charges from a surgeon, anesthesiologist or radiologist, said Harris, who encourages patients and consumers to contact their insurance provider to help determine their out-of-pocket costs.

Prices listed on the Crouse website are current as of June 2014, the hospital said. Crouse will update the information annually, it added.

The site may not reflect any recent pricing changes that may occur, Crouse said.

Patients should also research the quality of care provided at a particular hospital, as that that does not always correlate with pricing, Harris adds.

Harris recommends www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, the federal-government site for Medicare, but notes “numerous” online sites include information about hospital quality.

In addition to the prices, the Crouse site also contains a list of frequently asked questions, along with the total number of times a particular procedure or test was performed at Crouse in the previous year.

The site also includes other information, such as the average age of patients who have undergone a given medical test or procedure; the average amount that Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance pays; and a link to additional information about that particular medical service.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com