Going in for a health care procedure can be costly, even if you have health insurance.
But those costs are often not consistent.
A new report from Trilliant Health looked at employer-sponsored health care plans and found "Insured patients across the country pay widely varying amounts for the same procedure."
"People should be upset about this," said Allison Oakes, Chief Research Officer for Trilliant Health. "And what we hope is that with this price transparency data, the healthcare system and market will actually be forced to compete on price."
In one example the report found the median negotiated rate for a hip replacement was just under $22,000.
But that ranges from about $13,000 at multiple medical centers in New Jersey over $100,000 at a facility in Washington state.
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"There's a lack of competition and those health care systems that have the most pricing power have gone in charge the highest prices that they can get away with," said Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice University.
Ho says transparent pricing information on health care could help drive prices down.
"Having these prices available is only the start. What we need is for large employers to react to these prices and start looking for providers for their workers that have lower prices, but also high quality."
Another analysis found the U.S. paid more than $13,000 per person on health care in 2023 – far more than other high-income countries.
