10,000 dollars for a basic blood test ?!

[Thule]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...a02472-24ae-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html

What is this world coming to ?

 

[Spinach Dip]

Healthcare for profit is a great thing, huh?

 

[cidem2065]

Healthcare for profit is a great thing, huh?

That's clearly not the issue here.

 

[mik30102]

Basicly hospitalsls like to screw over people with 0 coverage. I remember a nyt article where someone was charged hundres of dollars for a dose of tylenol, which costs pennies.

 

[Holmwood]

That's why we need price transparency. Else we have no way of figuring out as patients what those EXTERNAL costs are.

 

[mvenus929]

I understand some variation, because different hospitals have different machines that can run tests differently or cost different amounts. Some hospitals are able to run tests that are send out tests for others.

But that doesn't account for the huge amount of variation between them.

 

[LizzyM]

I understand some variation, because different hospitals have different machines that can run tests differently or cost different amounts. Some hospitals are able to run tests that are send out tests for others.

But that doesn't account for the huge amount of variation between them.

They can charge what they want. Most insurers will negotiate a lower price; the uninsured who have money (wealthy people from abroad) may pay retail but most of the time no one pays retail. In fact, if the hospital does write off an unpaid bill, it will be for this higher amount; WIN! (In other words, it is not real money but it can sure fix up your balance sheet when you need to show that you are doing good in the community.) Furthermore, as pointed out in the story, some of the hospitals need to rebuild to meet new requirements for earthquake protection so some are trying to increase revenue in those ways.