This is a good article about hospital costs – http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2010/10/post_38.html
Editor’s Note: We recently did a study of hospital costs in East Texas for a client located near the Louisiana border. Employees could access two hospitals in town – one was out-of-network and the other in-network. A review of hospital charges from each hospital showed the average cost of the in-network hospital on average was 300-400% higher than the out-of-network hospital. Physicians in the area generally had admitting privaleges at each hospital. The in-network hospital utilization for the prior year cost the client’s self-funded group medical plan in excess of $2 million over what would have been the cost at the out-of-network hospital.
