Comparison of Average Patient Charges

Click here or on chart thumbnail below to see an analysis of average patient charges for South Florida hospitals, according to information provided by www.floridacompare.gov.

Websites Provide Healthcare Resources
The Florida Hospital Association has launched a new consumer Web site to assist the public in researching and managing their healthcare information. The website, www.floridainformedpatient.com, provides a  variety of healthcare information resources, including the ability to search for a hospital based on the types of services it provides and its location. The site also provides checklists for patients to use when selecting a hospital,
a physician, or a health plan and gives quick links to a variety of healthcare sites providing quality and pricing information.

Florida's Agency for Healthcare Administration has launched www.floridacomparecare.gov. The website presents performance and outcome data and information on selected medical conditions and procedures in Florida's short-term acute care hospitals and ambulatory (outpatient) surgery centers.

Follow the step-by-step directions at Florida Compare Care to search for "risk-adjusted average charges" for all hospitalizations and according to specific procedures/conditions. You can compare hospitals at the state level or at the county level. Baptist Health hospitals - Baptist, South Miami, Doctors and Homestead - are located in Miami-Dade County. Mariners Hospital is located in Monroe County.

Baptist Health Hospitals Ranked Among Least Expensive in New Study

Baptist Health South Florida hospitals are ranked among the least expensive hospitals in South Florida, based on a new study by researchers at the Dartmouth Medical School.  The study used Medicare data for 4.7 million Medicare enrollees who died from 2000 to 2003, and who had at least one of 12 chronic illnesses.  The study shows that Medicare could have saved $40 billion if all U.S. hospitals practiced the same high-quality/low-cost standard as that set by hospitals in Salt Lake City, Utah.   Visit www.dartmouthatlas.org for more information.

The study measured Medicare patients in last two years of life who have one of 12 serious chronic conditions. Data is for hospitals with 400 or more deaths from 1999 to 2003. Cost is what Medicare paid.

(Baptist Health South Florida hospitals are bolded).