Study Finds Inconsistent Pricing Information for Hip Replacement Surgery

More than half of all hospitals polled in a recent study conducted by Washington University in St. Louis were unable to provide a consistent estimate of the cost of a total hip replacement procedure.

The study, “Availability of Consumer Prices From US Hospitals for a Common Surgical Procedure,” was published Feb. 11 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, from the American Medical Association. Researchers for the study called more than 100 hospitals across the country asking for the cost of a hip replacement. Only nine top-ranked hospitals (45 percent of that group) and 10 non-top-ranked hospitals (10 percent) were ...