This document discusses how hospitals bill for outpatient cancer care and the results of a study analyzing billing data from 3,500 hospitals. The study found that some outpatient cancer centers bill fairly while others engage in unjustified price markups, charging 2.3 to 4.1 times more than Medicare allowable amounts for services like lab tests, chemotherapy infusion, radiation, and PET scans. The document argues for more price transparency to protect cancer patients from unexpected medical costs at a vulnerable time.

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How Hospitals can Bill for Outpatient Cancer Care?
Hospital medical billing and coding partners for outpatient cancer care centers deliver knowledge from
multiple sides of the medical and radiation oncology industry. They are the experts in both, the clinical and
business aspects of revenue cycle management.
Their unique know-how at the business level, along with background of working in outpatient cancer care
center and management, is invaluable. And when you combine their practical, real-world experience in
cancer patient medical billing services with action-driven results it's clear that those billing personnel are
well-suited to turning your progressive practice in to profit shelling center.
Insights on how hospitals can bill for outpatient cancer care center
A latest research report published in the American Journal of Managed Care highlights the need for fair
and transparent pricing of cancer-related hospital services to protect patients from erratic financial
burdens at a time when they are most susceptible. These are the finds of the researchers who conducted
the analysis.
Martin Makary, M.D., M.P.H., a cancer surgeon and professor of health policy at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, and also one of the senior authors of the research report, is of the view
that, "unjustified price markups contribute to the steep rise of health insurance and out-of-pocket costs to
patients. We found that some outpatient cancer centers bill and code fairly, while others engage in pricing
malpractices of insurers, patients and their employers. Hospital alterations in quality or charity care do not
account for these dramatic price differences."
For the research, Makary and his teammates attained all the medical billing records of approximately 3500
hospitals from all 50 states in 2014 to define how much hospital and their various units that offer cancer-

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related outpatient services billed for services compared with the Medicare allowable amount. This is a set
amount which the Medicare will pay for specific procedures given.
Utilizing the American Hospital Association database, the exploration team identified scope, nonprofit
status, countryside location and academic status for each hospital, which’s billing data, was the base of the
analysis. The study team also found out that subgroup of prominent hospitals that were listed among the
U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals Honor Roll for 2014.
Numbers game that define the outpatient cancer care billing
For each cancer care specialty service within the hospital, the experts calculated a markup ratio, and
defined the ratio of the charges billed relative to the Medicare allowable amount.
For example, a markup ratio of 3.0 which means that means that for a procedure with a Medicare
allowable amount of $1,000, the hospital charged $ 3000 or 200 percent above the Medicare allowable
amount. The services given included lab tests, chemo infusion, radiation services and PET scans.
Further breaking down the numbers the research team found that of the 3500 hospitals, specialty cancer
departments charged anywhere between 2.4 and 4.1 times more than what Medicare reimbursed for
those procedures.
To present you with some forecasting number from the research report: radiology specialty treating
cancer patients charged in an excess of 3.7x more for services; oncology had 2.3x to 2.4x more, while
pathology outpatient care centers charged 4.1x more.
We as specialty medical billing companies feel that cancer patients who already are going through so much
trauma shouldn't be put into such a bankruptcy like situation only because a hospital bloats a bill well
above what an healthcare payer would pay for the exact same service.
However, now things are changing and some states have taken up the legislation aimed at protecting
patients from collection agencies which hold patients responsible for the portion of the charges that is in
excess of what the highest payer company would pay.
While Medicare is not the golden standard, it's a benchmark of the varying degrees of price fluctuations
occurring in the healthcare market. What we need is more price transparency to end the most rigorous
price extorting practices and ensure that outpatient cancer centers fulfill their moral duty and end their
money extracting practices.
In the US, the cost of cancer care is anywhere between $40,000 and $400,000, this depending on the type
of procedures rendered and their local markup rates.