Hospital Charges... a good read

Just a small example... A hospital charges $18 each for test strips that can be purchased at a drug store for 55 cents. (The hospital gets a bulk price... you betcha)

This article is kinda long, but it seems to outline why medical costs are so high... greed.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/print/

Don't....get.....me.....stahted.....!

I am still reeling from my $18,000 hospital bill for a one night stay at a local hospital back in July. My insurance paid it, but I haven't had the nerve to ask for an itemized bill yet. I'm afraid reading it would land me back in the hospital again.

I'm going to read the article you posted now anyway. I have my nitro handy.

(I don't really use nitro.)

I've always heard that you can get an itemized charge list such as this and dispute prices. You would think the insurance companies would go sideways at some of these charges

Superb article, Eric. Thank you so much. I am going to forward this to Don McCanne of the PNHP (Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan), although he may have already seen it.

I've always had notions of setting up my own medical bill dispute company. Maybe the time is right.

The system is completely broken. That is why in the end we had to have some type of legislation. Our system will collapse in my lifetime.

Over 50 million uninsured all getting health care the most expensive way through the ER.


Type2 diabetes in 20 year olds. Etc etc. it may be about choice but bad choice will cause total collapse.

Everyone would be amazed and then appalled if the salaries of the executive of our hospital could be found and printed here. I have tried but just am not geeky enough to find them..The two CEOs our two nonprofit hospitals both draw over $900,000 a year for their bird's nest on the ground they call a job. I imagine their secretaries do the job for them which leaves them time to mastermind deals with the GOBs .This is why the prices are sky high. They are an elite group.

Health care in our country is bases on an economic model of semi monopoly.
It is NOT bases on free enterprise this is important to note.

I am sitting here day 21 in the hospital with my daughter too afraid at this point to even ask for the bill....

and she is more ill than when she walked in.

Sigh.

Hospitals aren't reimbursed at those prices... not by insurance companies or private payers and certainly not by the govt. It's simply a way to play the game set up by the govt via laws and a myriad of regulatory agencies, oversights, taxes...

There's been nothing free market about our healthcare system for a very long time.

SheSurfs wrote:

I am sitting here day 21 in the hospital with my daughter too afraid at this point to even ask for the bill....

and she is more ill than when she walked in.

Sigh.

I'm sorry, SheSurfs. I hope your daughter gets better soon.

What pb2 said!

It would be interesting to see how much the health Insurance Companies and the Hospital Industry pays out every year to buy the votes of our Congress under the name of Campaign donations.

SheSurfs wrote:

I am sitting here day 21 in the hospital with my daughter too afraid at this point to even ask for the bill....

and she is more ill than when she walked in.

Sigh.

That sounds like a nightmare. We'll keep her in our prayers, SS.

yelladawg wrote:

It would be interesting to see how much the health Insurance Companies and the Hospital Industry pays out every year to buy the votes of our Congress under the name of Campaign donations.

Yella, I found this article from 2009:http://sunlightfoundation.com/press/articles/2009/07/27/rules-gamehealth-care-industry-unleashing-big-mone/print/

Quote :

That spending followed a fast-paced first quarter for the industry. Overall, health care interests invested $126.8 million in lobbying over the first three months of this year, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, placing it well ahead of any other sector. "It blows away the ideological and single-issue groups," noted CRP spokesman Dave Levinthal.

---

According to this article called "How the Drug-Industry Won On Health Care (also from 2009):http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1931729,00.html

Quote :

The drug industry's legion of registered lobbyists numbers 1,228, or 2.3 for every member of Congress.

... in the first six months of this year alone, drug and biotech companies and their trade associations spent more than $110 million — that's about $609,000 a day...

It's good to see you on here again, Yelladoggie

SheSurfs wrote:

I am sitting here day 21 in the hospital with my daughter too afraid at this point to even ask for the bill....

and she is more ill than when she walked in.

Sigh.

I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for you right now, SS... my heart is breaking for you. I am sending up good thoughts for your daughter and you.

My prayers go out to your daughter, SS.

There should be a thorough investigation into this, its obvious to me the uproar against Obamacare is generated by these two corporate giants. A good example of their legendary greed.