Of course the insurance company should never pay $5,000 for an advil. If they did that then they deserve to go out of business. The insurance policy does not co

Of course the insurance company should never pay $5,000 for an advil. If they did that then they deserve to go out of business. The insurance policy does not cover any service at any price. You cannot just fraudulently invent a bill for services with absurd prices, and then demand payment. Some of you reading this of course get a good chuckle because they know this is exactly what's happening. One good Attorney General pressing criminal fraud charges in a case like this would get the ball rolling. So, how do you price the service when it's covered by an insurance policy? This can't really be an unsolved problem. What's interesting here is separating the price discovery problem from the socialization aspect. Can you fix one without necessarily resorting to the other? So in the ER the price of the drug should reflect the cost to administer it. Or maybe you should be charged a separate daily fee plus cost of supplies. What we want, first and most of all, is price transparency. Frankly the pharmacist and the attending are not paid that much, so where is the money going? A room full of equipment costs a lost of money, so isn't the solution to introduce different cost rooms based on condition? Too much diversity in the room / environment could be a problem, but right now it seems like they go for absolute uniformity?