%0 Journal Article
%@ 2561-326X
%I JMIR Publications
%V 5
%N 8
%P e26887
%T Analysis of Hospital Quality Measures and Web-Based Chargemasters, 2019: Cross-sectional Study
%A Patel,Kunal N
%A Mazurenko,Olena
%A Ford,Eric
%+ Northern Illinois University, 1425 West Lincoln Highway, DeKalb, IL, 60115, United States, 1 815 753 1891, kpatel27@niu.edu
%K chargemaster
%K standard charge
%K price transparency
%K health care
%K diagnosis-related group
%K DRG
%K quality measures
%K the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation
%K CMS
%D 2021
%7 19.8.2021
%9 Original Paper
%J JMIR Form Res
%G English
%X 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 (β=.929; P<.001) and readmissions (β=.514; P<.001). Other quality indicators, such as the effectiveness of care (β=−.919; P<.001), efficient use of medical imaging (β=−.458; P=.001), and patient recommendation scores (β=−.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. 
%M 34420914
%R 10.2196/26887
%U https://formative.jmir.org/2021/8/e26887
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/26887
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34420914