HispanicBusiness

New Jersey's hospitals are among the highest priced in the nation, ranking second only to California's, and they charge tens of thousands of dollars more for some of the same procedures than the top academic medical centers in New York City, according to data released Wednesday by the federal government.

Charges varied widely across the state -- from $203,000 for a knee or hip replacement at a Camden hospital to $41,800 for the same procedure at Chilton Hospital in Pompton Plains, for example.

And two privately owned for-profit hospitals, Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus and Bayonne Medical Center, consistently charged prices that were among the highest in the state. In fact, Bayonne's charges for treating heart failure, kidney and urinary tract infections, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were the highest or second-highest of 3,000 hospitals nationwide, according to an analysis by The Record of the data released by Medicare.

Complex formula

Charges are a hospital's "sticker price," the starting point for negotiations with insurers and a factor in the complex formula by which Medicare determines its payments. Hospital executives are quick to point out that almost no one -- just 4.5 percent of patients, according to the state hospital association -- pays these charges. To protect low-income uninsured patients, who were billed the sticker price, the New Jersey Legislature passed a law in 2009 that caps their bills at 115 percent of Medicare's rate.

But when patients seek care at out-of-network hospitals, their insurer will be billed -- and the patients will pay a portion of -- the full charges. Bayonne and Meadowlands became out-of-network hospitals for most insurance plans when they were acquired by their for-profit owners in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

Bayonne charged $177,200 in 2011 for treating septicemia, or an infection of the blood, for example, one of the most common causes of hospitalization. That was three times the $58,500 charged by The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. Medicare, whose prices are set by a federal formula, paid Bayonne $12,900 and Valley $13,064 that year to treat septicemia.

The data about hospital charges, previously available from the government for a fee, was released to the public for the first time as part of the push for pricing transparency under the Affordable Care Act. It is based on millions of bills submitted to Medicare in 2011 for the 100 most common categories of hospital care.

"What is striking in the data, which surprised us ... is the vast variation in charges," said Jonathan Blum, Medicare deputy administrator. "You'll see it in charges within a hospital compared to Medicare, charges across hospitals and charges within a given marketplace." For some treatments, there is a 10-fold variation.

It's not simply explained by differences in regional economies or whether a facility is a teaching hospital.

"Currently, consumers don't know what a hospital is charging them or their insurance company for a given procedure, like a knee replacement, or how much of a price difference there is at different hospitals, even within the same city," Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. The data "will help fill the gap."

For patients, the data offer a glimmer of information about how