HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Data being released for the first time by the government today shows that hospitals charge Medicare wildly differing amounts — sometimes 10 to 20 times what Medicare typically reimburses — for the same procedure, raising questions about how hospitals determine prices and why they differ so widely. The data for 3,300 hospitals, released by CMS, shows wide variations not only regionally but among hospitals in the same area or city.