Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire $89,000 for eighteen hour hospital stay

Yep, like most any other business the books are fudged. I have never worked in a hospital that the CEO was not a MBA. Of course some Doctors work in concert with the MBAs to lend credibility. Healthcare industry is worth more than my mind can imagine and there are all sort of crooks up and down the chain, from the lowest to the highest. But that being said, I think we have good healthcare in this country. I have taken care of people from around the world that have come here and have paid full price for procedures, because we are the best in the world.

because we are the best in the world.

plus $3k for installation.

The sad reality of our healthcare system is that it does NOT operate under a free market principles, hospitals don't list the prices they will charge.

I could not agree more.

WASHINGTON � Patients pay as much as 683% more for the same medical procedures, such as MRIs or CT scans, in the same town, depending on which doctor they choose, according to a study by a national health care group.

But if a patient does not know how much a procedure costs, he or she gets stuck with the remainder of the bill if it goes above that average price.

"It helps the small business," McClure said, "but the consumer's left out in the cold."

Providers, he said, often don't know real costs, either. When asked by patients for the cost of a procedure, providers often say they need to check with the insurer. The patient only learns the real cost when the bill arrives, McClure said. Legal reasons often prevent providers from discussing cost differences.

http://news.yahoo.com/snake-bite-89000-162515519.html

A snakebite victim who was treated at a North Carolina hospital came away with more than just fang marks when he received an $89,227 bill for an 18-hour stay.

Eric Ferguson, 54, from Mooresville, N.C., was taking out the trash at his home last August when he was bitten on the foot by a snake. He drove himself to Lake Norman Regional Medical Center, where he was treated with anti-venom medicine.

According to his bill, the hospital charged $81,000 for a four-vial dose of the medication.

Shocked at the price tag, Ferguson told the Charlotte Observer he and his wife found the same vials online for retail prices as low as $750.

Ferguson, who is insured, said his care was "beyond phenomenal."

"It was just the sticker shock," he said.

Because the hospital has a contract with Ferguson's insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, it reduced the total bill to $20,227. According to the Observer, the couple paid $5,400 out of pocket to cover their deductible and co-pay.

The hospital defended its prices, saying it has to charge prices higher than retail because of the various discounts it is required to give insurers.

"We are required to give Medicare one level of discount from list price, Medicaid another, and private insurers negotiate for still others," officials told the newspaper. "If we did not start with the list prices we have, we would not end up with enough revenue to remain in operation."

The hospital added: "Our costs for providing uncompensated care are partially covered by higher bills for other patients."

The Fergusons' case is, of course, not unique. A 2013 cover story by Steven Brill in Time magazine ("Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us") detailed the "outrageous pricing and egregious profits" destroying the U.S. health care system, noting that Americans were expected to spend an estimated $2.8 trillion on health care last year.

The biggest problem with what healthcare charges is most people don't have a clue what they are being charged for. They have no idea how many people are behind the scenes that they never see.

Want to talk cost of drugs. Fine. Our inpatient pharmacy operates 24/7. To cover every shift, every day requires a lot of pharmacists and technicians. To have the drugs on the shelves when you need them requires several people who only work supply. Unfortunately, all those people need management and their support. Oh yeah, those drugs have to be in stock in sufficient amounts. It's not a small amount in inventory that is there just in case that never gets used, but it has to be there just the same. How much mark up has to be made just to break even? It's not a little.

Now, that pharmacy has bills whether we have patients or not. Equipment, cleaning staff, utilities. It's not free. Same goes for every department in the hospital. You may see one nurse, but there are many people behind her that are required for her to give you treatment. The hospital overall has to have admin and HR plus all the costs of providing them a place to work. All those people have to be there whether we see one patient or 100.

Doctors? They certainly don't come for free and you may encounter several along the way.

If your hospital bill had a breakdown of everything you were paying for you would never finish reading it. You see three people while you're in but don't see the other 50 that are there making sure you can be taken care of. You certainly don't see all the millions of dollars worth of equipment that is there just so you can be taken care of.

Then factor in all the people we have to take care of that we know we won't cover expenses. How many businesses are required to sell products below cost or just give them away?

Of course, some of you just want to bitch and don't really want to know what's going on, so bitch away.