© 2024 KVPR | Valley Public Radio - White Ash Broadcasting, Inc. :: 89.3 Fresno / 89.1 Bakersfield
89.3 Fresno | 89.1 Bakersfield
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
76 new monthly members to go to reach our March goal! Start a new monthly gift today, or increase your existing monthly donation to help us reach the goal.

What California’s Transparent Hospital Prices Can And Can’t Tell Us About Actual Charges

Community Hospitals/ UCSF Fresno

If you or a loved one needed to go to the emergency room, how would you pay the bill? If you’re like most Americans, you don’t have huge cash funds socked away for a trip to the ER. Most of us are overwhelmed by the high cost of healthcare—and it doesn’t help that medical costs are often hidden.

We recently reported on a new federal law that aims to increase price transparency but doesn’t quite hit the mark. California, though, is ahead of the game—and it means we can actually compare prices at local hospitals around the San Joaquin Valley.

In this interview, host Laura Tsutsui speaks with FM89 healthcare reporter Kerry Klein about hospital price transparency in California and which Valley hospitals cost the most, but also why even publicly available price lists need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Kerry Klein is an award-winning reporter whose coverage of public health, air pollution, drinking water access and wildfires in the San Joaquin Valley has been featured on NPR, KQED, Science Friday and Kaiser Health News. Her work has earned numerous regional Edward R. Murrow and Golden Mike Awards and has been recognized by the Association of Health Care Journalists and Society of Environmental Journalists. Her podcast Escape From Mammoth Pool was named a podcast “listeners couldn’t get enough of in 2021” by the radio aggregator NPR One.
Related Content