Costs of hip replacement hard to find, vary widely

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Many hospitals are hard-pressed to tell people needing a hip replacement how much their procedure is likely to cost, according to a new study. Even when they can cite prices, going rates for the procedure may vary from hospital to hospital by a factor of 10, researchers found. “It was very frustrating,” said Jaime Rosenthal, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who led the new research. “You got transferred to all these different people. You had to leave messages, call back.” According to the U.S. …