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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,612 Likes: 1
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,612 Likes: 1 |
Just amazing pictures of a snake bite victim.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,612 Likes: 1
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,612 Likes: 1 |
So, thinking of alternatives . . . what did our forefathers do back in the 19th Century when they were bit by Copperheads or Rattlers? They died.
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 54,284
Campfire Kahuna
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OP
Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 54,284 |
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. Sorry but to put it succinctly, horseshit. And I'll bet every mechanic, electrician, and plumber has screwed you too. Funny how the people that know the least, scream the loudest. I'd like to invite you to kiss my ass.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,867 Likes: 41
Campfire Sage
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Campfire Sage
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,867 Likes: 41 |
What does Chuck Norris pay if he gets snake bit?
Nothing, but the snake dies.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,867 Likes: 41
Campfire Sage
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Campfire Sage
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,867 Likes: 41 |
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. Winner! Winner! Therein lies the entire [bleep} problem with health care. Herein lies the problem. How could a hospital have any idea what your course of treatment will cost until it's completed? By listing their prices and rates for each particular service.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,867 Likes: 41
Campfire Sage
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Campfire Sage
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,867 Likes: 41 |
Hospitals are not in a price sensitive field of service. The reason it's not price sensitive is the third party payer system. No one is motivated to demand lower prices for particular services if costs are spread out to everyone evenly regardless of their magnitude. A better system was the insurance model, i.e., you have a heart attack, your policy pays out TO YOU a specified predetermined amount, e.g., $250,000.00. If you minimize your expenses, you pocket the remainder. You don't, and your expenses exceed your compensation.
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,274
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,274 |
on the cost of the antivenin, the hospital also has to take into consideration all the antivenin it has purchased in the past that they had to toss out cause of passed its expiration date.....plus $750 sounds WAY low for CroFab, thats prolly for stuff near its expiration date....it should be closer to $2,000 for new production.... I work in an ER and this is spot on. It's not just the cost of buying one shipment of the Crofab but also the fact that the stuff expires pretty rapidly and the hospital has to constantly replace it. So you aren't just paying for what it costs to obtain that one bottle of Crofab but what it costs the hospital to maintain a supply of it at all times. Sucks but there it is. And I can promise you this, the level of anger over the price would pale in comparison to the level of anger if you had to tell a parent who had just brought in a bitten child. "Sorry we are all out of what we need to treat this but we will order some and hope your child can hang on till it gets here". "You know we used to keep this stuff on hand 24/7 but people bitched too much about the cost". Want to have that conversation with an ER doctor? I doubt it. Oh, and I also call BS on finding Crofab for 750 bucks. It is typically 2000 a vial.
Last edited by Todd_Bradford; 01/29/14.
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 28,605 |
alright since your in the ER Todd in a part of the country where snake bite is fairly common have you been in the ER long enough to have seen the difference between the old Wyeth serum and the new CroFab? do you think the comparably dirt cheap Wyeth is a good idea when there is CroFab available?
A serious student of the "Armchair Safari" always looking for Africa/Asia hunting books
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 56,354 Likes: 9
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 56,354 Likes: 9 |
Interesting reading guys, thanks.
_______________________________________________________
An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
LOL
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Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 374
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 374 |
The politicians want a taste no matter how small. I have a B.S. in Nursing, decades of experience, my best year was in 2010, I made a commitment to try and make $100,000 dollars and failed. Even though I worked the whole year, 12 hour days, 6 days a week, I came up short. With +32 hours of overtime each week, I still came up short. The money goes towards the top and they use it to advance their own agenda. Yeah, I'm calling BS on this. As an RN, your base salary should have been over $50K/yr. If you really worked 32hrs overtime per week you would have been well over $100K. Now, this still proves nothing. Who is at the top that somehow is getting the money you wanted? Wages in the Tidewater Area of Virginia are approximately 87% of the National Average due to all the military and military retirees. Wages are not as high here as in most other areas. My friend makes more as a LPN in PA., than I do here as an RN here in Virginia. I imagine in Alaska it is even more. I was making $22/hour which got me a base salary of $45760/year. 32 hours of overtime was worth $51744/year, I took 3 weeks vacation which of course I did not get any overtime. Which got me almost $98,000 for the year. If I wasn't working in a specialty area I would have made less. Obviously the upper management is using the money for increasing their sphere of influence through donations to other charities and hospitals, they sit on each other boards, etc, not unlike any other business or government.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,141 Likes: 4
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,141 Likes: 4 |
KYFRED, atom chaser, I wish your profiles gave me more information. But purely on the face value of your posts, I agree.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 23,654 Likes: 1
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 23,654 Likes: 1 |
My BIL was bitten on the hand by a rattlesnake last year & for 6 vials of anti-venom, spent 2 days in the hospital & his bill was over $40K.
That was in Butte.
MM
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