The Uninsured Patient Experiment

From the Healthcare Advocate Blog: Here's what he found when posing as an uninsured patient requesting an elective CT scan:

• The list price varies by 75% ($1,013 to $3,970).
• The best uninsured price varies by 92% ($204 to $2,600).
• List price discounts range from 0% to 86%.
• To get many of the discounts hospitals offer the balance needs to be paid in full at the time of service or a large down payment made, to receive it.
• Some hospitals are unwilling to divulge the price over the phone and others will not call back.