The iFHP Comparative Price Report – Read it and Weep 

This month, the International Federation of Health Plans (iFHP) released its 2015 Comparative Price Report, a look at medical prices per unit in private health plans in seven OEDC countries, including the US. While you can guess that most procedures, tests and scans cost more in the US, you might be surprised at the size of the discrepancies. Let’s take a look at the most common surgical procedure performed in the US – the appendectomy. According to the iFHP, the average cost of an appendectomy in the US is almost double the cost in the UK and quadruple the cost in Australia. While the report doesn’t explain the higher average US cost, it does offer a clue by showing how widely prices for this surgery vary within the US – from about $9,000 at the 25th percentile to about $33,000 at the 95th percentile. This degree of cost variation – when it doesn’t result in better outcomes – is why US employers have turned to transparency tools, reference-based pricing, and value-based care.