Politics & Government
Delnor Bills '1 to 2 Times National Average,' New Database Reveals
A newly-released national database shows that there's a huge disparity in what hospitals charge patients for services. Delnor falls is the "1 to 2 times national average," according to the New York Times.
By Rick Nagel, Geneva Patch
Delnor Hospital in Geneva and Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield charged more than the national average for the majority of 100 common procedures, according to statistics compiled and released Wednesday by the Obama administration.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services database includes more than 3,000 hospitals and reveals a signficant disparity in what hospitals charge for services.
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An article in the Huffington Post spotlights one of the more-dramatic examples: a $100,000 charge at Boyonne Hospital Center in New Jersey versus a $7,000 charge at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx for treatment of the same ailment—chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The two hospitals are less than 30 miles apart.
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Crain's Chicago Business reports Thursday the highest and lowest charges in the Chicago area for those same 100 procedures. Delnor Hospital in Geneva didn't have the highest or lowest costs in any of the categories, although its sister hospital in the Cadence group—Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield—made the "highest" list in two categories.
The statistic were compiled in September 2011; the hospitals merged in 2010 and became part of the Cadence brand in 2012.
CDH charged $60,994 for treatment of respiratory infections and inflammations. That compares to the Illinois average of $39,928 and the U.S. average of $37,922, Crain's reports. The lowest bill for treatment was at St. Mary's Hospital in Centralia, which charged $11,351 for the same service code.
CDH charged $55,255 for treatment of intracranial hemorhage or cerebral infarction, versus the Illinois average of $23,831, the U.S. average of $23,593 and the lowest in Illinois: Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center's $10,450.
In the searchable New York Times database, you can see Delnor's numbers are pretty close to the national average in most of the 100 categories. In the top five common cases, the hospital's charges ranged from .9 the U.S. average to 1.4 times the U.S. average.
Delnor Community Hospital
Five common typesof casesNUMBER OF CASESAvg. amount hospital
billed MedicareAvg. amount paid by Medicare AMOUNTVS. U.S. AVG.AMOUNTVS. U.S. AVG. Major joint replacement 217 $53,828 1.1x $12,220 0.9x Drug-coated stent insertion 19 $63,931 1.0x $11,437 0.8x Pulmonary embolism (clot) 22 $37,110 1.4x $6,188 0.8x Permanent pacemaker insertion 17 $49,256 0.9x $11,810 0.8x Laproscopic gallbladder removal 13 $35,099 1.0x $6,777 0.8x
SOURCE: New York Times database
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