Overview

• Published on September 24, 2025 in JAMA Surgery, the study connects hospitals’ price markups with short-term outcomes after four major elective operations.
• Drawing on 2022 Nationwide Readmissions Database records from nearly 2,000 hospitals, researchers flagged 196 high-markup facilities—largely for-profit in big cities—that treated 42,600 of 362,400 patients.
• Patients at these hospitals had about 45% higher odds of major cardiac, respiratory, infectious, or kidney complications and a 33% higher risk of 30-day non-elective readmission.
• High-markup centers charged up to 17 times estimated costs, compared with roughly three times at other hospitals in the sample.
• The authors call for standardized public reporting of hospital markups and highlight missing data on negotiated prices and cost structures, noting that only Maryland and West Virginia regulate hospital pricing today.