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What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

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Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#91

Post by rootusrootus »

dbt00 wrote: post #17
lolsal wrote: post #3

I know $60 Ibuprofen can seem like a lot, but is anyone arguing that you're literally paying for only the pill(s) with that $60? Aren't you paying for the instant availability, the insurance that it's not expired (do they even expire? I really don't know), and confidence that your healthcare provider has signed off that XXX mg of Ibuprofen is a.) OK to have with your current medications and conditions and b.) suffici…

> I know $60 Ibuprofen can seem like a lot, but is anyone arguing that you're literally paying for only the pill(s) with that $60? Aren't you paying for the instant availability, the insurance that it's not expired (do they even expire? I really don't know), and confidence that your healthcare provider has signed off that XXX mg of Ibuprofen is a.) OK to have with your current medications and conditions and b.) suffi…

Absurdities like $60 Ibuprofen seem like an unforced error to me. This is the kind of blatant abuse that leads to voters getting collectively angry and getting the legislature involved.

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#92

Post by noja »

hahla wrote: post #75
noja wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today is "don't believe the comments day" it seems. How is an unconscious person meant to be stop an "out of network" nurse assisting? Is there a tattoo that you can get?

I think OP meant he was able to get the extra $5k removed from the bill after the fact.... not the nurse removed from the operating room.

Yes I understood that he got the charge removed. I couldn't understand the initial situation (that such a thing could happen).

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#93

Post by Arubis »

heavyset_go wrote: post #66
UnpossibleJim wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It's the same reason we don't have free market police and fire services. You simply don't get to "shop around" for emergency services, which includes privatized ambulance services (which are outrageously expensive, on the order of $12,000 for the ride I took when I had to take one, and it was a relatively benign one... thank god I had insurance). EMS is covered, but that's the Fire Department. After that, it…

The history of private firefighting is a particularly dirty one. In the past, fire companies would show up and demand payment before putting out fires. If a payment couldn't be made, the company might negotiate the purchase of the burning property at a steep discount. Later, insurance companies hired brigades to only put out fires on insured properties. Fire companies might have fought or sabotaged one another in ord…

Indeed, this is the origin of the term "fire sale".

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#94

Post by edoo »

merpnderp wrote: post #53
edoo wrote: post #10

Health care is the only industry where the felony laws regarding up front pricing aren't enforced. It was allowed to become a twisted regulatory nightmare where the laws were written by the industry itself utilizing kneejerk methods to obtain profit at the cost of systemic corruption.

And yet it is by far the most regulated industry in the US. Almost as if the more invasive the regulations the more invasive the corruption.

It takes a while to realize nearly every law is anti-competition protectionism. I didn't realize it until I was working for a multinational food company and the managers were bragging about how the company lobbied for a safety bill that exactly regulated their own industry in a way that cost their competitors billions in compliance fees. They were proud of it. I was disgusted.

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#96

Post by maxxxxx »

manfredo wrote: post #83
serg_chernata wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> without even getting a quote beforehand Reminds me of this really good article. TLDR: Man tried to call a number of hospitals to find out how much childbirth is going to cost him and received no answers. https://www.vox.com/2016/5/5/11591592/birth-cost-hospital-bi...

Realistically, no hospital is going to give out a price. They don't know what unexpected complication may arise that requires additional services.

They have nice pricing tables for insurances,. Just not for patients. Even unexpected complications will have a billing code but the prices are kept secret.

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#97

Post by aidenn0 »

manfredo wrote: post #83
serg_chernata wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> without even getting a quote beforehand Reminds me of this really good article. TLDR: Man tried to call a number of hospitals to find out how much childbirth is going to cost him and received no answers. https://www.vox.com/2016/5/5/11591592/birth-cost-hospital-bi...

Realistically, no hospital is going to give out a price. They don't know what unexpected complication may arise that requires additional services.

In that article he specifically laid out the scenario of a vaginal birth with no complications.

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#98

Post by neurotrace »

cabaalis wrote: post #57
UnpossibleJim wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It's the same reason we don't have free market police and fire services. You simply don't get to "shop around" for emergency services, which includes privatized ambulance services (which are outrageously expensive, on the order of $12,000 for the ride I took when I had to take one, and it was a relatively benign one... thank god I had insurance). EMS is covered, but that's the Fire Department. After that, it…

> You simply don't get to "shop around" for emergency services You do actually, by where you choose to live and also by the services as detailed in [1]. I think there's merit to investigating public health care. That line stops for me in eliminating private care. 1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/kim-k...

A lot of people don't get much choice in where they live.

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#99

Post by mikecsh »

lolsal wrote: post #3

I know $60 Ibuprofen can seem like a lot, but is anyone arguing that you're literally paying for only the pill(s) with that $60? Aren't you paying for the instant availability, the insurance that it's not expired (do they even expire? I really don't know), and confidence that your healthcare provider has signed off that XXX mg of Ibuprofen is a.) OK to have with your current medications and conditions and b.) suffici…

In the UK patients pay a flat charge for a prescription which is around £10. For that reason I rarely prescribe something like ibuprofen or paracetamol outside of the hospital. I will always tell the patients to buy it themselves over the counter for around £0.16, unless there is a good reason to deliver it via a prescription.

Re: What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

#100

Post by [deleted] »

empath75 wrote: post #29
cronix wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they told me it would cost $60 for a simple Ibuprofen, I'd get out of bed and walk myself down the pharmacy on the first floor where they are regularly priced (in the SAME building), or send a family member down for that 10 minute walk to save $50 times how many you need to take. The pharmacists know the drugs I'm taking and interactions, yet the Ibuprofen isn't marked up a couple hundred percent.

They won't tell you that before they give it to you.

[deleted]
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