Standard prices for thousands of Butler Health System treatments and services are available online, as required by a new federal rule going into effect Jan. 1.

BHS posted its cost data ahead of the deadline. The numbers are available in both a 400-page PDF and a downloadable spreadsheet at butlerhealthsystem.org. Once at the site, use the search function to find the “Billable Services/Fees” page.

Jana Panther, public relations director, said anyone with further questions about billing should call the hospital's finance department at 724-284-4460.

“If you look at this and you're not sure, call for information,” Panther said. “It gets really muddy and hard to understand, but we're happy to walk through everything with our patients.”

She said the hospital got the figures up ahead of time because it tries to do so when faced with new transparency requirements. Every hospital in the nation is under the same requirement as of Jan. 1, as an Affordable Care Act rule must be fulfilled by that date. Hospitals are required to provide the information already, but the specific methods of online publication are new mandates this year.

“We try to get out ahead of these things when they come down,” Panther said.

Hospitals are supposed to update these files at least once per year. Panther said the costs are frequently changing with industry and technology trends.

Much of the list won't offer any clarity to the curious reader. Of 13,172 services listed, 2,320, or 17.6 percent, are listed only as “priced at time of service.”

The remaining entries list a standard charge, which most patients would split with their insurance provider. A self-pay column shows the cost for those paying out-of-pocket without insurance, and a third column shows a discounted version of the former cost for such patients if they pay immediately.

The costliest procedure listed is a Carticel reimplantation, which costs a standard charge rate of $141,931. Such a procedure involves removing cartilage cells from an injured knee, using them to grow more such cells in a laboratory and then reimplanting the extra cartilage back into the knee.

Several items are listed at the bottom of the price range. A four-inch Ace bandage carries a $2 standard charge, for instance.

The hospital listed 2,291 procedures that cost no more than $100. This is about 21 percent of all services listed, excluding those labeled “priced at time of service.”

Another 392 priced services cost more than $10,000. That makes up about 4 percent of the priced services.

There are 2,119 services priced between $1,000 and $2,000, about 20 percent of the priced services.