Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 370 posts

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#171

Post by HorizonXP »

brink wrote: post #4

I just got an itemized bill today for a minor fall I took a couple months back.. On top of the nearly $6k in other charges from the hospital, they charged $531 for one dab of superglue or "liquid stitches" on my forehead for something that would have healed by itself. One of my friends died two years ago from pneumonia. He didn't go to the hospital when symptoms first started because he was afraid of the bills that w…

I just linked the Schedule of Benefits from OHIP in another comment I made, but your comment made me curious to look it up.

Z176 - Repair of lacerations - up to 5 cm = $20.00 Note: Wound closure via tissue adhesives (such as cyanoacrylate) is payable at 50% of the appropriate fee.

Meaning, in Ontario, your procedure would have cost us $10. I'd have to look through to see what other costs would be incurred for the ER visit, but suffice it to say, it's probably well under $6,000.

Oh, and that's $10 CAD, which is like 2 Freedom Bucks. ($7.52 USD)

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#172

Post by abhorrence »

repiret wrote: post #106
oppositelock wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to the ER with chest pains seeming like a heart attack. They did an EKG, determined it wasn't a heart attack, then a blood test, which determined it was low potassium, and did a chest x-ray just in case. I received a saline IV and potassium pills as treatment, and went home after a couple of hours. The bill was about $18,000 for this. The insurance negotiated rate was about $1,500, of which I had to pay about…

They’re not shell organizations, hospitals just outsource tons of stuff, frequently including physicians. (In fact, in California, hospitals may not legally employ physicians to practice medicine)

How does this work with institutions like Kaiser? Are their hospitals not technically hospitals? Or are the physicians all technically contractors there?

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#173

Post by abledon »

tryitnow wrote: post #47

I went to the ER last year. They ended up making me stay overnight. I was hit with a bill for over $10K, with much of that falling on me. I also used to work in corporate finance and I have a good intuition for how billing works. Before I even got the bill I mentally prepared myself for it by telling myself that it's going to be a long drawn out process. I waited and waited and received an initial bill a few months a…

That’s disgusting of them to do — disgraceful part of the country

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#174

Post by sarcasmOrTears »

ianmcgowan wrote: post #134
isostatic wrote: post #121

I live in the UK. My father had a stroke a couple of days ago. He’s in intensive care on a ventilator. Total bill so far: £2 parking. Also the coffee machine in the relatives waiting room was out of sugar.

I'm from the UK, but live in the SF Bay Area, and this is the single biggest thing I don't get about the US (with education costs being second). I kind of get the libertarian view of not wanting to trust the government but when the alternative is some kind of Mad Max dystopian hellscape (where people are literally dying), surely looking around the world for alternatives that actually work makes sense?

It's not libertarian. The US system is cronyism, statism at its finest, possibly illegal. Honestly, I think with current US laws and a willing political force, a lot of top players in the current US healthcare system could be punished, even with the death penalty (especially if reinstated at the federal level).

Dreams aside, in order to have a free market healthcare, which is what informed libertarians want, you need to abolish medical license, the FDA, patents and many other State's interventions. There is a reason why the healthcare system in the US is insane, and it's because the laws are made so that cronies have the monopoly on your health. Neocons are pathetic when they defend the current system.

Without the free market (the real one, not the scam you have in the US), healthcare will be a mess more than any other industry and at that point is better to have a single payer, universal system, because in the end they have the same problems of the current US system but at least you don't get ruined.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#176

Post by ConcernedCoder »

abhorrence wrote: post #172
repiret wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not shell organizations, hospitals just outsource tons of stuff, frequently including physicians. (In fact, in California, hospitals may not legally employ physicians to practice medicine)

How does this work with institutions like Kaiser? Are their hospitals not technically hospitals? Or are the physicians all technically contractors there?

They are all salaried employees, so Kaiser can work from a 'fixed cost' perspective ( as told to me by a surgical nurse ).

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#177

Post by tehlike »

sangd wrote: post #124

It's not the hospital alone. I went to my Kaiser optometry for my wife's glasses yesterday, and they said it would cost $375 for her pair. Her insurance would cover $175 + $100 discount, and the rest she has to pay. She has a Platinum coverage with Kaiser. We went home and she ordered 5 pairs online for $50. The anti-reflective coating cost $90 at Kaiser, but only $6 online. Fortunately, I don't wear glasses.

Eye care is mostly a monopoly where luxotica owns the market.

Warby parker, zenni, etc are the disruptors.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#178

Post by chillacy »

sprucely wrote: post #39
narrator wrote: post #21

This is why I like Kaiser so much. If you make it to a Kaiser emergency room, and you have Kaiser health insurance, you are not going to get an out-of-network surprise bill. Everyone at Kaiser works for Kaiser and is paid a salary by Kaiser and the Kaiser hospital is the only one that bills you.

Kaiser is great for critical care and general practitioner stuff. But they do most of their cost-cutting in specialty care; the stuff that is rare or tends to not be easily diagnosed while having a major impact on patients' quality of life. Just lookup lawsuits and Kaiser mental health.

I get the general feeling that KP tends to under-prescribe care, but other doctors definitely over-prescribe care. That's what the financial incentives are for each anyways.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#179

Post by chillacy »

golover721 wrote: post #97

Another thing that bugs me in the whole "medical cost" disaster that is the USA. Whenever you talk to Doctors or other medical practitioners about the situation they blame the hospitals, or the insurance companies or but ultimately they are complicit in the mess, but they don't want to rock the boat, its just shameful.

The whole system of massive school debt and massive salaries for doctors resting on the AMA artificially limiting the supply and scope of doctors? Yea I'd say so.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#180

Post by harshreality »

lopmotr wrote: post #140
hurrdurr2 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lobby for insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital chains spend ungodly amounts of money to influence our political process. Once all the politicians are bought and paid for everything becomes kosher.

For some reason, Americans keep complaining about the same problems with their government over and over again - particularly lobbying, and yet every election they nearly universally reject all their concerns in favor of tribalism and vote for the same two parties that are responsible for everything they don't want, or nobody at all, which has the same effect. Wouldn't it be fun if whenever somebody criticizes their g…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

Without a switch to range voting, approval voting, or one of the condorcet variants, the party system will remain broken into two corrupt halves.

Post reply on HN