@Article{info:doi/10.2196/26887,
author="Patel, Kunal N
and Mazurenko, Olena
and Ford, Eric",
title="Analysis of Hospital Quality Measures and Web-Based Chargemasters, 2019: Cross-sectional Study",
journal="JMIR Form Res",
year="2021",
month="Aug",
day="19",
volume="5",
number="8",
pages="e26887",
keywords="chargemaster; standard charge; price transparency; health care; diagnosis-related group; DRG; quality measures; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation; CMS",
abstract="Background: The federal health care price transparency regulation from 2019 is aimed at bending the health care cost curve by increasing the availability of hospital pricing information for the public. Objective: This study aims to examine the associations between publicly reported diagnosis-related group chargemaster prices on the internet and quality measures, process indicators, and patient-reported experience measures. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we collected and analyzed a random 5.02{\%} (212/4221) stratified sample of US hospital prices in 2019 using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis. Results: We found extreme price variation in shoppable services and significantly greater price variation for medical versus surgical services (P=.006). In addition, we found that quality indicators were positively associated with standard charges, such as mortality ($\beta$=.929; P<.001) and readmissions ($\beta$=.514; P<.001). Other quality indicators, such as the effectiveness of care ($\beta$=−.919; P<.001), efficient use of medical imaging ($\beta$=−.458; P=.001), and patient recommendation scores ($\beta$=−.414; P<.001), were negatively associated with standard charges. Conclusions: We found that hospital chargemasters display wide variations in prices for medical services and procedures and match variations in quality measures. Further work is required to investigate 100{\%} of US hospital prices posted publicly on the internet and their relationship with quality measures. ",
issn="2561-326X",
doi="10.2196/26887",
url="https://formative.jmir.org/2021/8/e26887",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/26887",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34420914"
}