Charges are undiscounted prices.

The tables show the total undiscounted prices for each visit. The payments expected and received by providers are usually much less than charges due to discounts negotiated by group health insurers and government programs such as Medicare.

Charges are facility charges.

The charges in the tables do not include physicians' fees or contracted services billed separately.

Charges are the total of all services rendered, not a single procedure.

The charges reported represent the total charge for all the services provided and billed during a hospital stay.

Charges can be affected by exceptional or unusual (outlier) cases.

Charges may be inflated by one or two very expensive procedures. Also, a small number of cases (less than 30) may not be typical of prices at the facility.

Charges can be affected by severity-of-illness or patient health status.

Patients may differ in their health status and presence of other conditions. Charges may differ greatly due to these conditions or unexpected complications that require additional treatment.

Charges can be affected by regional costs differences.

Labor and other costs may vary by geographic area within the state and may influence charges. Use caution in comparing different geographic locations where the "cost-of-living" may differ.

In addition to the factors mentioned above, charges may be influenced by:

• Size of facilities
• Urban versus rural location
• Teaching hospitals
• Range of services provided
• New technology available
• Fixed costs of facilities
• Price mark-up at facilities
• Treatment ordered by physicians