Layer C — Explainers and links¶
The cheapest layer and the first one built. One "where else to look" page, a handful of plain-language explainers each written once and dated, and the methods page that the tables will lean on.
Where else to look¶
The Sources and projects reference page is the public face of this layer: every existing publisher, tool, and dataset a resident or an analyst might use instead of, or alongside, this site, with what each covers and what it misses. The links are not the product; the gap they leave is the reason this site exists.
Explainers¶
Each is one page, plain words, dated, and linked from the tables where the term appears.
- How to read an explanation of benefits.
- What a facility fee is, and why the same MRI costs several times more inside a hospital.
- What "in network," "allowed amount," and "negotiated rate" mean.
- How to ask for the cash price, and when it beats using insurance.
- Where to find the Medicare price for a procedure.
- What the 2021 and 2026 hospital rules require, and how to report a hospital that is not complying (the CMS complaint form).
- Where New Jersey's own efforts stand: the A5540 / S4501 claims-database bills, S3012 / A1729 on enforcement and debt collection, S3409 on facility fees. Statuses as found are on Sources and projects; re-check before the explainer is published, because bills move.
Methods¶
A page the tables link to for everything the one-sentence explanation leaves out: what the hospital files are and what they omit (physician fees billed separately, facility fees at off-campus sites, anesthesia, pathology, and the freestanding centers until Layer B), how the Medicare benchmark is computed and why it is approximate, how payer names are normalised, and how "N/A" and placeholder values are treated.
Open¶
- Research the existing publishers and tools and fill Sources and projects. This is the first research item and the first page to go live.
- Confirm the status of each New Jersey bill named above.
- Decide whether explainers live on this site or are written once on the ledger and linked. Proposal: here, since they are about prices rather than about the district.