Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 28, 1995 TAG: 9508280102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This area produced the highest cost for this operation - $9,120 - in the state, according to a new consumer survey from the Virginia Health Services Cost Review Council.
Prices to repair a bum knee ranged from $9,120 at Clinch Valley Medical Center to $1,543 at Lewis-Gale Clinic's ambulatory surgical center. The price is based on an average of the costs for the knee operations done by the facilities in February, the survey month. The clinic's price was based on six operations; Clinch Valley performed two.
Roanoke Memorial Hospital did 18 scope knee operations - technically called a meniscectomy of the knee - in February for an average bill of $2,440. Lewis-Gale Hospital did not do any of the surgeries that month.
The lowest price in the state for this surgery was $910 at Surgi-Center of Winchester in Northern Virginia.
The knee operation had the widest range of prices of any of the 15 procedures surveyed. Generally, though, the lowest charges for any of the operations were found at ambulatory surgical centers.
The ambulatory centers do not have some of the overhead costs of a hospital, said Bob Miller, vice president of Lewis-Gale Clinic.
Lewis-Gale Clinic's charge for the knee surgery ``covers our costs,'' Miller said. Plus, he added, its lower cost makes the clinic attractive when it competes for health care contracts. The clinic has four operating rooms.
Another reason for the disparity between acute-care facilities and ambulatory centers, the survey report points out, is that the acute-care facilities often deal with patients who have more severe illnesses.
Results of the statewide price check have been published in Consumer Price Guide to Hospitals brochures, divided into five geographic areas.
This is the second such effort from the Cost Review Council this month. Brochures detailing nursing home costs were released in early August.
Western Virginia's nursing home charges were among the lowest in the state, but that was not the case in the outpatient surgery sampling.
In 10 of the 15 surgeries, the region's median price was higher than the statewide median. The median means that there were the same number of facilities that charged more than that price as charged less.
Southwest Virginia's median for the knee surgery was $3,677, compared with the statewide median of $3,392. The area's median for heart catheterization was $4,327, against a statewide median of $4,093.
The average charges for heart catheterization in the Southwest region ranged from $1,061 at Centra Health in Lynchburg to $4,763 at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, which handles many severely ill heart patients. Other hospitals' averages for this procedure were $4,551 at Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County, $4,229 at Montgomery Regional and $3,869 at Radford Community.
The Consumer Price Guide to Local Hospitals for Southwest Virginia covers 31 facilities from Danville to Wise County. In addition to the chart on charges, the guide discusses why hospital prices vary from place to place and suggests several reasons why a patient's bill for one of the procedures surveyed might vary from the price listed in the report.
Anyone wanting to receive any of the outpatient hospital charges brochures can write to the Virginia Health Services Cost Review Council, 805 E. Broad St., Sixth Floor, Richmond 23219, or call the council at (804) 786-6371.
The nursing home brochures are also available from that office and at Area Agency on Aging offices, Social Services offices, health departments and hospital discharge offices.
by CNB