Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 26, 1993 TAG: 9307260024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia Health Services Cost Review Council unveiled its 13th annual survey of charges, which showed a 5.6 percent increase over the $6,967.28 median hospital stay in 1992.
The daily hospital charge rose statewide from a median of $1,156.02 in 1992 to $1,371.41 in 1993.
Over the past five years, the median daily cost of a hospital stay rose 54 percent, the council said. Median numbers are midway between an equal number of higher and lower figures.
As it has in the past, the council also analyzed the cost of 15 inpatient procedures and 15 outpatient procedures, comparing the charges that were in effect on Feb. 1.
Overall, medical procedures were less costly for residents of Southwest Virginia and those living in the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont regions, and higher in the urban corridors of Tidewater, Richmond and Norfolk.
The average hospital stay cost $6,475.03 in Southwest Virginia and $5,799.28 in the Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley regions.
The council touts the annual survey as a consumer guide to hospital costs, but offers a few caveats. Most importantly, the survey does not factor in quality of care or the procedures individual hospitals use to calculate costs.
While consumers can comparison-shop for procedures ranging from hip replacement to hysterectomy, the executive director of the The daily hospital charge increased statewide from a median of $1,156.02 in 1992 to $1,371.41 in 1993. Virginia Hospital Association said it does not reflect the reality of cost-shifting that dominates the way hospitals do business.
"A lot of the increase in charges reflect cost-shifting patterns that have been developing for the last decade," said Laurens Sartoris, including the cost of caring for Medicare and Medicaid patients and the uninsured.
Medicaid and Medicare, government programs that fund health care for the poor and elderly, respectively, often do not pay all the health-care costs for those patients. Hospitals then pass on some of the unpaid charges to other patients.
"It would have been a more accurate snapshot 10 to 15 to 20 years ago," Sartoris said, "but the market has moved far away from that.
"I'm not saying there is not a problem with health-care costs. Our answer is to fix the whole system, we need to get away from these artificial charges."
For example, in the Roanoke Valley, the median average cost of a hospital stay at Roanoke Memorial Hospital was $13,068.42, while its sister Carilion Health System hospital, Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley, came in at $7,767.18.
That's because Roanoke Memorial handles many more Medicaid and Medicare patients than Community. The two hospitals have also divided up such specialties as obstetrics and orthopedics, with some of the more expensive procedures conducted in RMH operating rooms.
"We're a teaching hospital and you can't compare us to smaller institutions," said Steve Wesby, chief financial officer at RMH.
Costs at RMH are comparable to such institutions as the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals.
"A lot of this thing is the luck of the draw," said Wesby. "If X hospital happens in February to receive a lot of complicated cases in a certain diagnosis, that data will reflect a higher charge."
Lewis-Gale Hospital, the third full-service facility in the Roanoke Valley, falls in between the two Carilion hospitals at $11,115.22 median charge per admission.
Lewis-Gale is owned by Hospital Corporation of America.
The survey can serve as a starting point, especially for consumers with time to shop prices. For example, the cost of a total hip replacement at RMH is $24,945.30, well above the $19,108 statewide median cost.
At Lewis-Gale, the procedure costs a median of $19,035, but the hospital stay is five days, compared to seven days at RMH.
For treatment of congestive heart failure, it's cheaper to go to Roanoke Memorial, where the average cost is $8,326.79. It rises to $9,854 at Lewis-Gale and $10,528.13 at Community.
The cheapest gallstone surgery can be obtained at Community for $5,528.06. At Lewis-Gale, the procedure costs $7,922; RMH reflects a median charge of $7,570.27.
by CNB