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Time:
Costs of hospital operations can vary wildly by location

15 December 2015

The cost insurance companies pay for a medical operation in a hospital varies dramatically from city to city within the U.S. and can even vary by a factor of nine within an individual city, according to new research. The study from researchers at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania and other schools relies on data from private insurers to provide a lens into health care costs. Researchers found that the cost of hospital visits is the primary driver of differences in health care cost between regions. ''These price differences between hospitals can be thousands of dollars,'' said study author Martin Gaynor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

This article was published online by Time on December 15, 2015
Link to article here

Related publications
'The Price Ain't Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the Privately Insured', Zack Cooper, Stuart Craig, Martin Gaynor and John Van Reenen, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1395, December 2015

Related links
Zack Cooper webpage
John Van Reenen webpage
Growth Programme webpage

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