Medicare Website Compares Procedure Costs at Hospitals and ASCs

This is part of a Congress-mandated initiative called the 21^st Century Cures Act.

“Can you imagine going to the grocery store, getting the groceries you need for the week, but never knowing the price of your items until a week later when the store sends you a bill? Sadly, that’s how healthcare works every day” – Seema Verma, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator (CMS Blog).

Medicare Pricing Tool

The Procedure Price Lookup Tool allows a qualified Medicare beneficiary to compare average payments and copayments for medical procedures performed in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The website also provides the national average copayment a beneficiary with no Medicare supplemental insurance policy (Medigap) would pay the provider.

Colonoscopy, upper endoscopy and esophageal dilation are three of the most common GI outpatient procedures. Here are the average costs Medicare patients would pay for these procedures at a hospital outpatient department (HOPD) compared to an ambulatory surgery center (ASC).