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kutulu · 12-08-2004, 10:20 AM

So my wife and I just had a baby. We have ok insurance and in the last few weeks all of the bills have been coming in. The first thing that sticks out is the flatout price gouging for certain things.

For example, they gave her a medicine packet containing a 20 tablet bottle of tylenol, a 20 tablet bottle of motrin, a couple of sample tubes of lansinol (cream to rub on the breasts after feeding) and a couple of samples of a few random things. They charged us over $60 for the whole package of shit. For that much money I could have bought 250 tablet bottles of the painkillers, the largest available retail size versions of the other shit and still have money left to buy lunch with. Looking at the sizes of these things, I really think these things are either given to the hospital to pass on to the patient in hopes that they will buy the stuff or sold at very low rates. The profit margins on these things must be extreme. How is this justifiable?

That issue is nothing compared with the rest of the bills and how things sort out between the hospital and my insurance company. I don't have the bills with me right now, but the insurance company and I are actually paying only about half of what the hospital asked for originally. The way it works is the hospital sends a bill for 10k. The insurance compnay looks at pricing agreements and says that the bill should actually be 5k. The hospital then sends a revised bill and the insurance company pays their portion and tells me to send the rest of it to the hospital.

I'm assuming the actual prices that each insurance company pays is different but if a random uninsured woman got the same service we got, she'd be stuck with paying all of it. She wouldn't be able to negotiate the price. How is it legal for these types of agreements to be made?

Everybody should be paying the same price for the same service. Best Buy can't charge me $500 for a TV that costs the average guy $1000 so why are hospitals allowed to make agreements that serve them and screw the little guy?

I really think there should be legislation introduced that forces the hospitals to provide the same services at the exact same prices. The govt would not be imposing any actual prices, just stating that everyone pays the same amount.

12-08-2004, 10:20 AM	#1 (permalink)
kutulu Junkie	Consistancy in health care expenses So my wife and I just had a baby. We have ok insurance and in the last few weeks all of the bills have been coming in. The first thing that sticks out is the flatout price gouging for certain things. For example, they gave her a medicine packet containing a 20 tablet bottle of tylenol, a 20 tablet bottle of motrin, a couple of sample tubes of lansinol (cream to rub on the breasts after feeding) and a couple of samples of a few random things. They charged us over $60 for the whole package of shit. For that much money I could have bought 250 tablet bottles of the painkillers, the largest available retail size versions of the other shit and still have money left to buy lunch with. Looking at the sizes of these things, I really think these things are either given to the hospital to pass on to the patient in hopes that they will buy the stuff or sold at very low rates. The profit margins on these things must be extreme. How is this justifiable? That issue is nothing compared with the rest of the bills and how things sort out between the hospital and my insurance company. I don't have the bills with me right now, but the insurance company and I are actually paying only about half of what the hospital asked for originally. The way it works is the hospital sends a bill for 10k. The insurance compnay looks at pricing agreements and says that the bill should actually be 5k. The hospital then sends a revised bill and the insurance company pays their portion and tells me to send the rest of it to the hospital. I'm assuming the actual prices that each insurance company pays is different but if a random uninsured woman got the same service we got, she'd be stuck with paying all of it. She wouldn't be able to negotiate the price. How is it legal for these types of agreements to be made? Everybody should be paying the same price for the same service. Best Buy can't charge me $500 for a TV that costs the average guy $1000 so why are hospitals allowed to make agreements that serve them and screw the little guy? I really think there should be legislation introduced that forces the hospitals to provide the same services at the exact same prices. The govt would not be imposing any actual prices, just stating that everyone pays the same amount.