ROANOKE, Va. – A new federal rule requiring hospitals to list online how much their services cost took effect this week.
The law aims to give patients more information about what they're paying for and help them shop around for the best provider.
The new price lists -- known as chargemasters -- are required to be listed on the hospital's websites.
They list hundreds, sometime even thousands, of items in a spreadsheet along with their prices.
Included are items such as medicines and certain procedures like CT scans.
It's important to note, however, that these lists are only an estimate of costs.
Not only can prices fluctuate, but they can vary from person to person depending on the specific medical needs that a patient may require as well as what types of insurance they may have.
So this is a lot to sort through and patients need to know that most likely they will end up paying less than what's listed.
Below are the prices for certain hospitals in our region:
Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital
Centra Lynchburg General Hospital
Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital
Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital
Carilion Giles Community HospitalÂ
Carilion New River Valley Medical CenterÂ
Carilion Roanoke Memorial HospitalÂ
Carilion Stonewall Jackson HospitalÂ
Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital