There is wide variability in outpatient hospital charges for 10 common blood tests, according to a study published Aug. 14 in BMJ Open. While hospital-level factors, including ownership and teaching status, explain some of that variation, the authors say the lack of transparency in establishing charges hampers patients paying out of pocket from making informed consumer choices. “These findings highlight the lack of predictability facing Americans paying full charges for healthcare, limiting their ability to act as rational consumers,” write the authors, led by Renee Hsia, M.D., from University of California, San Francisco. The researchers examined variation in charges between general acute care, medical/surgical hospitals (average of 177 hospitals per test) for 10 common blood tests (basic and comprehensive metabolic panel, lipid panel, complete blood cell count [automated and with differential white cell count], thyroid-stimulating hormone, creatine kinase, troponin assay, prothrombin time, and thromboplastin time [partial]). The researchers found significant variation in charges for blood tests. For example, while the median charge for a lipid panel was $220, there was a thousandfold difference in charges, with a range from $10 to $10,169 per test. The median charge for a basic metabolic panel was $214, but again charges ranged from $35 […]