The New York City Department of Health's first report aims to crack down on high-priced hospitals.
Report on 263 pages It was quietly released on Friday through the agency's new Healthcare Accountability Office, and said the hospital prices are highly inconsistent. The study focuses on payments made through the city's healthcare provider, Anthem Blue Cross, rather than private insurance plans.
The city's GHI comprehensive benefits plan through the national anthem, which was paid average of $45,150 for inpatient services last fiscal year in New York's top 10 hospital systems, the report states.
The highest prices for full hospitalization were the New York Presbyterian ($92,727) and the Montefiore Medical Center ($83,573), while Stony Brook University Hospital was the lowest ($36,876).
The city spent $3.3 billion in paying for hospital care for employees in the fiscal year ending June 30, with half going to three hospital systems: Northwell Health ($759 million), New York Presbyterian ($485 million), and NYU Langone Health ($443 million).
New York Presbyterians are the highest priced at 11 factors out of 12 of the 12 inpatients analyzed and 14 out of 27 outpatient surgeries, the report says.
The hospital system prices ranged from $940 to $12,000 for colonoscopy and $7,000 to $58,000 for Caesarean delivery.
And cities now spend more on hospital outpatient care than inpatients.
The report cited the national anthem, in which cities pay a whopping $3 billion a year to pay insurance to roughly 900,000 employees.
Anthem claimed that publishing some of the price data would violate a confidentiality agreement with hospitals prior to the 2021 federal regulations requiring hospitals to disclose prices to the public.
However, Councillor Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), who sponsored the law that created the first healthcare watchdog office in 2023, has not purchased it.
“If federal regulations require hospital pricing to be made public, it's a face slap to New York City, but the national anthem does not comply with city laws because of what is called “existing agreements,” she said. “This healthcare industry cat and mouse game costs billions of dollars for cities. We need full transparency right now.”
“It's very painful to see these prices,” Menin added. “It's so expensive and why we need price transparency. Why should New York City pay so much for healthcare? It's uncomfortable and unsustainable.”
The city's healthcare insurance policy will go into operation later this year, and the city will need to “require full pricing disclosure” to anyone who gets it.
In a post two years ago, I reported on an analysis of 32BJ SEIU, the city's architectural services employee association. Big Apple shows that by auditing exactly how much they pay for care at various hospitals and recommending ways to lower prices, they can save as much as $2 billion a year.
32BJ President Manny Pastreich added that his union pushed hard to create an OFA, “the initial report is more remarkable for what is lacking.”
“It is clear that hospitals and insurance companies are still taking influence to block certain data sharing.
OFA was largely created because it has the authority to publicly disclose citywide hospital pricing to provide more transparency to patients about the costs of medical procedures in private and urban-owned medical facilities. It operates on a $2 million budget and 15 staff.
“We're looking forward to seeing you in the city's largest city employee union,” said Henry Garrid, executive director of District Council 37.
“We must have the freedom to use all our tools to combat these unfair practices, including ensuring that the office of healthcare accountability is staffed appropriately to serve its primary purpose of addressing disparity pricing that leverages the vulnerability of New Yorkers in need of care.”
Anthem Reps did not reply to the message immediately.
