The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper • Hacker News Board

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#61

Post by awaaz » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:26 PM UTC

This article is really informative, and makes me feel proud to be an Indian. Medical care really is one of those things that no person should have to beg or borrow for, in a civil society. We're still not there yet as a country, but the signs are positive.

FWIW, I'm relatively well off and have medical insurance, but the cost is absolutely negligible compared to what I hear is prevalent in the US - about $10 / month.

It's probably just my bad luck, but I've had three surgeries in the last 10 years - an appendectomy, an ACL replacement, and a septoplasty. Each one of these was done in highly regarded (and expensive) hospitals in Delhi - Apollo, Max, and Fortis. Each time I walked out of the hospital without paying a single dime. I just had to show my insurance card, and the entire stay was cashless. In fact, after my last surgery I realised that I could have even been reimbursed for my medication post surgery if I'd kept the receipts (which I unfortunately didn't).

Anyhow, more power to Narayana.

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#62

Post by FireBeyond » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:34 PM UTC

jermaustin1 wrote: post #50

rb808 wrote: post #30

$2k for major surgery, nice! Last time I went to ER it was $2k for the doctor's assistant to ask a few questions and put a band aid on.

My wife fainted at a Shake Shack in NYC on the UWS. The 5 hour hospital stay with medicine, a regular check in from a nurse, and fluids cost less than $500. The The ambulance game is the real racket.

In Washington state that trip would have cost about $700 (I used to work in private EMS, now in Fire).

In Washington, the ambulance companies are separate.

In NY state, and particularly in the City, most ambulance companies are owned by the hospitals themselves. It's cost shifting.

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#63

Post by hourislate » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:37 PM UTC

jermaustin1 wrote: post #50

rb808 wrote: post #30

$2k for major surgery, nice! Last time I went to ER it was $2k for the doctor's assistant to ask a few questions and put a band aid on.

My wife fainted at a Shake Shack in NYC on the UWS. The 5 hour hospital stay with medicine, a regular check in from a nurse, and fluids cost less than $500. The The ambulance game is the real racket.

Should have taken Uber/Lyft. A lot of folks are now using them to go to Emergency.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/taking...

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#64

Post by omegaworks » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:38 PM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #47

He succesfully performed a complicated surgery for $10K that would cost $200K in the US. And India still can't afford to pay those prices. The problem is obviously not that THIS guy is not working efficiently. It's that the distribution of wealth under our planetary economic system is deeply unfair.

It's kind of a relative quantity though, so the numbers might not necessarily be as comparable. The value of a dollar in India might be much higher.

$1 is almost 70 indian rupees, and the distribution of rupees might be slightly more equitable among the population of India.

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#65

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:41 PM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #47

He succesfully performed a complicated surgery for $10K that would cost $200K in the US. And India still can't afford to pay those prices. The problem is obviously not that THIS guy is not working efficiently. It's that the distribution of wealth under our planetary economic system is deeply unfair.

[deleted]

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#66

Post by jonathanyc » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:41 PM UTC

This was shocking to read:

> The data appear to back Shetty up. In part because its huge volumes help surgeons quickly develop proficiency, the chain’s mortality rates are comparable to or lower than those in the developed world, at least for some procedures. About 1.4 percent of Narayana patients die within 30 days following a heart bypass, according to the Commonwealth Fund, which studies public health, compared with 1.9 percent in the U.S. Narayana also outperforms Western systems in results for valve replacements and heart-attack treatment, the group found.

I’d always heard that although the US’s healthcare is the most expensive, it also has the best outcome for specialist care. But the fact that this hospital outperforms the US while charging a fiftieth as much makes me wonder how much better the specialist care could be outside of the US given the same resources.

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#67

Post by jonathanyc » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

DoubleCribble wrote: post #18

Some equipment is too expensive to be disposable and therefore requires enhanced cleaning protocols[0], but reusing as much equipment as possible just to save a few bucks seems penny wise but pound foolish. Why add unnecessary risk [1] if you can easily avoid it? [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3623380/ [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/evidence-for-pers...

Except his hospital has better outcomes for those procedures, according to TFA.

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#68

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:44 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #35

rb808 wrote: post #30

$2k for major surgery, nice! Last time I went to ER it was $2k for the doctor's assistant to ask a few questions and put a band aid on.

Actually it wasn't a critically urgent problem but needed doctors attention. If someone wants an idea for an app or website - a way to lookup local ERs by price would be great.

> If someone wants an idea for an app or website - a way to lookup local ERs by price would be great.

Predicting current local ER wait times for a given set of symptoms would probably be more useful.

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#69

Post by sneakernets » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:44 PM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #47

He succesfully performed a complicated surgery for $10K that would cost $200K in the US. And India still can't afford to pay those prices. The problem is obviously not that THIS guy is not working efficiently. It's that the distribution of wealth under our planetary economic system is deeply unfair.

I had a history professor tell me that if there was any kind of cultural/economic revolution in the US, it would be over health care. And that was during the worst of the HMO days.

It's even worse now with these "HMO/PPO hybrid" systems, where instead of getting nothing, you get "something", then a massive hospital bill afterwards.

Re: The World’s Cheapest Hospital Has to Get Even Cheaper

#70

Post by laurencerowe » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 8:46 PM UTC

The US healthcare system is absurdly inefficient but the nominal cost comparison given in the article is meaningless since wages make up a huge proportion of costs in healthcare (either directly or embedded in supplies and services.)

Nominal per capita income in India is ~$2000 while in the US it is ~$60,000. Simplistically one would expect costs to be approximately 30x higher in the US so a 20x difference in cost of $200,000 to $10,00 doesn't seem absurd.