Esophagitis, Gastroenteritis with MCC in California

Digestive system DRGs cover appendectomy, bowel surgery, gallbladder, GI bleed, and hepatobiliary procedures. Laparoscopic vs. open approach, case complexity, and complication rates explain most cost variation.

Esophagitis, Gastroenteritis with MCC is Medicare DRG 392 in the Digestive category. National Medicare average for this DRG is $12,448 across 3,052 reporting hospitals. The state-level view here filters that universe down to California only.

California's average for this DRG sits well above the national Medicare mean. State-level differences are explained primarily by the regional Medicare wage index — the multiplier CMS applies to standardize DRG payments to local labor costs — alongside hospital case mix and the concentration of academic referral centers in the state's larger metros.

Within the state, the 4× spread between the lowest- and highest-reporting facility usually reflects length-of-stay differences, complication adjustments for sicker patients, teaching-status add-ons, and outlier payments for unusually long stays. Two hospitals reporting the same DRG can post meaningfully different totals without anything “wrong” happening at either site. For non-Medicare patients, the more relevant figure is the negotiated commercial rate published in each hospital's machine-readable file under the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule.

For a planned admission, the most useful complement to the cost view is the hospital-specific quality data on CMS Care Compare. The site publishes risk-adjusted measures of mortality, readmission, complication, infection, and patient experience for every Medicare-participating hospital. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicators feed many of these CMS measures.

For complex procedures, hospital-level case volume correlates with outcomes in published research, even after risk adjustment. CMS publishes case counts on Care Compare alongside outcome measures.