Boiler Bay Beacon
LINCOLN CITY — A inpatient room at Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital runs $1,300 per day according to a spreadsheet of 1 million prices at the 25-bed facility compiled and published by Samaritan Health Services.
Within the remarkable, downloadable document at https://samhealth.org/patient-visitors/make-a-payment/learn-more-about-price-transparency/ is a price for everything from electron microscopy ($960) to “reduction” of a dislocated finger ($1,596), with a “percutan verterbral augmentation” (a bone-cement procedure commonly used to treat spinal fractures) coming in at $12,521.
The hospital uses a “chargemaster” system which documents every item in a patient’s bill, right down to each suture ($29.84), acetaminophen tab (40 cents) and arm amputation at the humerus ($3,045).
Not everything is expensive: The sodium chloride solution in your IV bag is just $25 in some cases, and the immune globulin in a tetanus shot is a mere $163.59.
There is much to learn from skimming through the price chart. For example, like any business, cash is king at the hospital. A knee surgery known as “arthrotomy” carries a $17,500 price tag, but is discounted to $14,072 for cash. The little-known discounts, from 5 to 30 percent, awarded to insurers are also revealed in the exclusive price spread sheets for all hospitals on the state of Oregon. The site also has tools for estimating costs and starting financial assistance.
Samaritan states the “standard charges” shown are not binding and do not necessarily reflect the out-of-pocket costs” and financial responsibility for hospital services. Medicare and Medicaid also have set rates which hospitals are obligated to accept. The Samaritan Health Services website carries similar charge sheets for its Newport, Lebanon, Albany and Corvallis hospitals.
As a curiosity in your at-home medical library, the “standard charges” document is a must-have publication for double-checking charges and keeping your insurance company and other providers honest. It’s also an interesting insight into the thousands of life-saving procedures available at your local hospital.
