[nshelly]

Good point. Prices for each CPT code accepted by by insurance company are kept secret, and the chargemaster published by a hospital is so inflated it's basically useless. For some diagnostic tests, it's pretty straightforward to understand, but for others like an ER bill where there can be dozens of claim lines and codes, it can be really hard to understand and the patient is relatively powerless to do anything about it after the fact.