The article used the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) 238 - Major Cardiovascular Procedures without Major Complications. This is the best guess at capturing the costs of "Open Heart Surgery". (CMS only releases data for the top 100 DRG codes). "Open Heart Surgery" is a term for a variety of surgical procedures done on the heart, including valve replacement, vascular repairs of the aorta/vena cava/pulmonary vessels, and coronary bypass. These span a wide variety of DRG codes, including 216-221 for valve replacement, 228 (other cardiothoracic procedures with major complications), and 231-236 for cardiac bypass. Assuming we are comparing the operation known as coronary bypass grafting, then 238 is a decent enough code to use, with the proviso that it's not the best source for data.
Looking at the numbers claimed: If you download the Excel file from CMS [1], you can sort by DRG and Provider Name. Yes, if you search by DRG 238 and filter by Cleveland Clinic you will get $106,385 charged to Medicare. However, what the article completely leaves out (and anyone in medical practice will assume) is that Medicare simply does not pay the amount covered. Average Total Payments by Medicare: $26,898. That's how much Cleveland Clinic gets reimbursed, on average, by Medicare for any procedure included in DRG 238.
It gets more interesting when you include all providers and sort by average total payments. The highest average Medicare reimbursement to anyone for DRG 238 is $54,682; the lowest $13,233. Another interesting example:
In Alabama, at Brookwood Medical Center, DRG 238 covers $111,008 and only reimburses $15,552.
These comparisons of the US system to outside countries really need to compare average US reimbursement to their stated cost, because they sure aren't funding an army of administrators to get the insurance companies to pay up.
In summary, you can get "open heart surgery" in the US (Alabama) for "$15,552". I wonder what the Alabama price is if you walk in and offer to pay cash. If you can get it at the Medicare reimbursement rate, that compares decently to the Indian price.
[1] http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Stat...