Iowa
Hospital PricePoint
Iowa hospitals and
health systems have taken a major step toward transparency. IHA has developed
a public Web site - Iowa
Hospital PricePoint - that allows health care consumers to see basic information
about inpatient services and charges at Iowa hospitals. Data is gathered through
the IHA Inpatient and Outpatient Databases and the AHA Annual Survey. The
reports are based on specific types of hospitalization with the following information
included:  The
name, address, telephone number and web site of the hospital selected.
The
number of discharges, the average length of stay, the average and median charges,
the median age of the patients involved and the percentage of male and female
patients for (1) the selected hospital; (2) all hospitals in a specific Medicare
class; (3) all hospitals with similar net patient revenue as the selected hospital;
and (4) all Iowa hospitals. There is the option to compare the selected hospital
to other individual hospitals. The
results shown are for all severities of illness within the service category (utilizing
3M All Patient Refined DRGs). Results can be seen by severity of illness by checking
or unchecking the boxes in the upper left area of the result table. A
link is provided to the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative Web site for data on quality
and patient safety in Iowa. Iowa Hospital PricePoint also includes
overall information about charges and payments to the selected hospital from different
types of insurers. A
bar graph shows the distribution of hospital charges for all patients by payer
type (private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid or other government programs).
A
pie graph illustrates the percentage of charges paid on behalf of patients with
private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid or other government coverage. These graphs
refer to all services delivered by that hospital. A
table detailing the health care charges for which the hospital did not receive
payment because the patient qualified for free or reduced-charge care or because
the patient failed to pay what was owed (charity care and bad debt). To
access Iowa Hospital PricePoint, click
here. Contact Perry
Meyer or Sara
Hayes at IHA for more information.
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