12 November 2019 - U.S. hospitals’ sticker prices for two common sources of surprise medical bills have climbed far faster than economic inflation, a new study suggests.

Researchers focused on so-called chargemaster rates, or sticker prices, for two services that are often the source of surprise medical bills for patients - emergency medicine and anesthesiology. Patients with insurance usually pay only a small fraction of chargemaster rates, but people who lack insurance or receive care from out-of-network physicians may be billed at these higher rates.

Researchers examined Medicare claims data from 2012 to 2016 for emergency medicine and anesthesiology, focusing on the difference between Medicare reimbursement rates and chargemaster rates.

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