Date: 2025-08-22 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028172
HEALTHCARE
ST LUKE'S UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK
Hospital Price Transparency
ST LUKE'S UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK
Hospital Price Transparency
Original article: https://www.slhn.org/billing/patient-billing/price-transparency
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
St. Luke’s University Health Network is empowering patients with the necessary information to make informed health care decisions.
Hospital price transparency helps Americans know the cost of a hospital item or service before receiving it. This information will make it easier for consumers to shop and compare prices across hospitals and estimate the cost of care before going to the hospital.
Starting January 1, 2021, each hospital operating in the United States is required to provide clear, accessible pricing information online about the items and services they provide. St. Luke’s offers a robust, patient-friendly price estimator tool, PriceChecker. It provides both an individualized insurance estimate as well as affordable financial options for many shoppable hospital services.
Additionally, in accordance with government transparency requirements, St. Luke’s is providing a comprehensive, machine-readable file with all items and services inclusive of St. Luke’s standard charges and negotiated payment rates. Given the vast number of contractual payment arrangements that exist within any healthcare system, this file provides the most up-to-date average payment information in a consistent, comparable reporting format.
The intent of this information is for patient use. This site is not intended for use by other health systems, insurance companies, and their agents. By accessing this website you acknowledge that you are a patient seeking pricing information.
Disclosures
- Because of the individuality of each patient’s care regimen, actual charges may materially vary where they are quoted cumulatively for a particular service.
- Due to the significant complexity and variation of payer contracts, average payer payments by service may be represented. This may produce skewed results if volumes for a particular service are low. It may also result in no data being reflected.
- Various contractual arrangements with payers outside of fee-for-service and settled retrospectively will not be incorporated in service-specific payment rates. This factor will ultimately result in both negative and positive variations to the stated payments in terms of overall contractual settlements.
- As notated within the files, certain payment rates may also include physician rates as stipulated within the hospital agreement.