Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

[hazlnut]

Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

This is a deep and thoughtful analysis of how hospitals bill for health care.

This is the definitive explanation of why we pay so much for health care.

Dozens of midpriced items were embedded with similarly aggressive markups, like $283.00 for a “CHEST, PA AND LAT 71020.” That’s a simple chest X-ray, for which MD Anderson is routinely paid $20.44 when it treats a patient on Medicare, the government health care program for the elderly.

Every time a nurse drew blood, a “ROUTINE VENIPUNCTURE” charge of $36.00 appeared, accompanied by charges of $23 to $78 for each of a dozen or more lab analyses performed on the blood sample. In all, the charges for blood and other lab tests done on Recchi amounted to more than $15,000. Had Recchi been old enough for Medicare, MD Anderson would have been paid a few hundred dollars for all those tests. By law, Medicare’s payments approximate a hospital’s cost of providing a service, including overhead, equipment and salaries.

On the second page of the bill, the markups got bolder. Recchi was charged $13,702 for “1 RITUXIMAB INJ 660 MG.” That’s an injection of 660 mg of a cancer wonder drug called Rituxan. The average price paid by all hospitals for this dose is about $4,000, but MD Anderson probably gets a volume discount that would make its cost $3,000 to $3,500. That means the nonprofit cancer center’s paid-in-advance markup on Recchi’s lifesaving shot would be about 400%.

It will take you about an hour or so to read and digest the entire article.

So many talking points (left and right) are thoroughly debunked. For example, the notion that providers don't like medicare, on the contrary, it's a huge profit center.

Or the notion that the higher prices for prescription meds we pay in the U.S. support more research and innovation. B.S. The profit margin is so extremely high that this claim doesn't hold up. They could charge less, and still have plenty for their R&D budget.

Ever ask yourself why your local non-profit hospital is constantly expanding and adding new wings, using the best modern architects and landscapers? It's because of their annual charity ball.

People with insufficient insurance or no insurance are taken advantage of, as they are not a willing participant in the market. No one wakes up and says. "I think I'll go to the emergency room today and see what they have on sale."

 

[DiamondDave]

You want to charge less??? start your own hospital, drug company, etc and give it away all you want...

 

[Political Junky]

You want to charge less??? start your own hospital, drug company, etc and give it away all you want...

Yes, folks in other countries pay a fraction of what Americans pay for the same drugs.