The $100,000 Question
Why some doctors charge 10x more than what insurance actually pays.
There's a dirty secret in healthcare billing: the "charge" on your hospital bill has almost no relationship to what insurance actually pays. Hospitals set "chargemaster" prices — their list prices — that can be 5x, 10x, even 20x what Medicare considers reasonable.
Why does this matter? Because if you're uninsured, out-of-network, or stuck with a balance bill, you might get hit with the full charge. These aren't prices set by any market mechanism. They're essentially made-up numbers — and they can ruin lives.
Below, we rank every procedure by its markup ratio: the gap between what hospitals charge and what Medicare actually allows. The highest ratios represent the most egregious disconnects between billing fantasy and economic reality.