Residents of Kansas City, Missouri, and Indianapolis with private health plans face wide disparities in how much they pay for hospital care, depending on where they go for help, a study found. The highest-priced hospitals in 13 cities studied are typically paid 60 percent more for inpatient services and almost double for outpatient care than the lowest-priced hospitals in the same communities, according to a study released today by the Center for Studying Health System Change. Hospitals with more market power have greater muscle in negotiations with insurers and can extract higher prices, the group found.
