chargemaster

plural chargemasters

1. USgovernmentA comprehensive list maintained by a hospital of prices of goods and services it will bill to its patients and their respective health insurers.

   The patient faced bankruptcy because she couldn't pay off the hundreds of thousands of dollars accrued from her hospital bill, including a price from the chargemaster for a single acetaminophen pill at ten times the cost for the same pill over-the-counter at a pharmacy.

   5 more examples

   Much ink has been spilt bemoaning that incomprehensible foundation of hospital cost accounting and prices, the redoubtable chargemaster.

   2007, James C. Robinson, “Price Transparency Begins at Home”, in Frontiers of Health Services Management, volume 23, number 3, American College of Healthcare Executives, archived from the original on 21 May 2013, pages 25–28

   The higher the chargemaster markup over cost, the greater the potential for profit.

   2008, T. Neil Davis, Mired in the Health Care Morass, Ester Republic Press, →ISBN, page 66

   What a hospital is actually paid by an MCO, Medicare, or Medicaid is rarely even close to what is listed on the chargemaster. In fact, only the uninsured are subject to those charges.

   2009, Peter Kongstvedt, Managed Care: What It Is and How It Works, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, page 212

   Of particular importance, other than in Maryland, hospitals are generally free to charge whatever they want in their chargemaster.

   2012, Peter Reid Kongstvedt, Essentials of Managed Health Care, Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, pages 114–115

   California is a unique state in that all hospitals are required to submit a copy of their chargemasters, which the state then posts online for all consumers and patients to see.

   2012 July 16, Bob Herman, “Report: Surgery Prices Vary Wildly at California Hospitals”, in Becker's Hospital Review, ASC Communications, retrieved 04 Mar 2013