Maintenance notice: Some features that submit or update information are temporarily disabled while we migrate the website. You can continue browsing normally. Thank you for your understanding.
TUESDAY, Feb. 28, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Some U.S. hospitals might be charging private insurers twice as much for knee and hip replacements as the implants typically cost, new research suggests.
It's not clear why the discrepancy exists, and an official with a national trade association of hospitals cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from a finding that only involved one insurer.
Still, study co-author Dr. Kenneth Mandl said the results raise questions, especially regarding the fact that insurers aren't told how much the implants actually cost the hospitals.
"Billions of dollars are at stake when the true cost of the devices are hidden," said Mandl, director of the Computational Health Informatics Program at Boston Children's Hospital.
Improving orthopaedic care, education and research using Internet technologies