Annals of emergency medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Benefits of Out-of-Hospital 12-Lead ECG and Advance Notification in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients.
Pre-hospital 12-lead ECG may improve short-term mortality and time to primary cardiac intervention in patients suffering acute myocardial infarct.
pearl -
Previous studies have shown that charges for inpatient and clinic procedures vary substantially; however, there are scant data on variation in charges for emergency department (ED) visits. Outpatient ED visits are typically billed with current procedural terminology-coded levels to standardize the intensity of services received, providing an ideal element on which to evaluate charge variation. Thus, we seek to analyze the variation in charges for each level of ED visits and examine whether hospital- and market-level factors could help predict these charges. ⋯ Our findings of extensive charge variation in ED visits add to the literature in demonstrating the lack of systematic charge setting in the US health care system. These widely varying charges affect the hospital bills of millions of uninsured patients and insured patients seeking care out of network and continue to play a role in many aspects of health care financing.