Hospital Costs in Connecticut Differ Widely

Written by Eileen McNamara 

If you start feeling chest pains you're not likely to stop and check out hospital rates before you seek treatment. 

If you could, you might. 

A newly released government database on hospital ratesnationally shows that rates for some 100 basic procedures at hospitals can vary widely. The same is true for Connecticut hospitals, the database shows. 
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For instance, if you go to St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center in Hartford the average charge to treat your chest pains would be $19,386. The same treatment at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London will cost you, or your insurance company, $11,255. 

If you have an acute myocardial infarction with complications the average charges for treatment at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam would be $17,102. But at Hartford Hospital, the average charge for the same treatment would be $28,970.

The data was released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and it's the first time the government has made public such information. The data is based on more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals across the country and is expected to be highly scrutinized by health care researchers, according to CNN.com. 

In one instance, the average bill for a heart attack without major complications at a hospital in Danville, Ark., is $3,334. At Hartford Hospital, it is $16,863, according to the Hartford Business Journal.

You can view the Connecticut hospital data on the journal's website.