title: The pricing of U.S. hospital services: chaos behind a veil of secrecy.
abstract: Although Americans and foreigners alike tend to think of the U.S. health care system as being a "market-driven" system, the prices actually paid for health care goods and services in that system have remained remarkably opaque. This paper describes how U.S. hospitals now price their services to the various third-party payers and self-paying patients, and how that system would have to be changed to accommodate the increasingly popular concept of "consumer-directed health care."
authors.affiliation: Center for Health and Well Being, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Uwe E
authors.initials: UE
authors.lastname: Reinhardt
mesh_terms: D003219:Confidentiality; D004469:Economics, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005249:Fees and Charges; D014481:United States