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Serious question: can anyone point me to some good stories where someone just told these hospitals to fuck off when they try to charge hundreds of dollars for a

Serious question: can anyone point me to some good stories where someone just told these hospitals to fuck off when they try to charge hundreds of dollars for a band-aid or an aspirin? I suspect that would be my response. What happens? Do they just wreck your credit by turning you over to a collection agency? Another question: Can they be sued for price gouging? I'd love to see them legally justify before the court some of this garbage pricing that varies by tens of thousands of percent between providers for commodity items like saline, bandages, and generic drugs. When I read some of these horror stories, I suspect that I would declare bankruptcy out of principal were I to have this misfortune to get hit with one of these bills. The whole health care industry in this country has become a cancer on society. What's the hidden cost of the stress and anxiety this causes in our day to day lives. When an ER visit can financially ruin you for years, how much better is this than living without modern health care at all?

chimeracoder 9y ago
> Serious question: can anyone point me to some good stories where someone just told these hospitals to fuck off when they try to charge hundreds of dollars for a band-aid or an aspirin? I suspect that would be my response. What happens? Do they just wreck your credit by turning you over to a collection agency? No, and in fact, self-paying (ie, uninsured) patients can pretty much always tell the hospital, "No, I'm not going to be able to pay $10,000, but if you give me a discount to $500, I can pay in cash today". Of course, most patients don't know they can do that. > Can they be sued for price gouging? I'd love to see them legally justify before the court some of this garbage pricing that varies by tens of thousands of percent between providers for commodity items like saline, bandages, and generic drugs. It's not really price gouging the way we generally use that term. Hospitals lose money per-patient on Medicare and Medicaid patients that they treat, and they have to make it back somehow. They way they do that is by marking up the rates for private insurers. By law, they can't present different initial prices to patients (or their insurers) based on their insurance status, so that means that uninsured patients end up seeing an initial bill that's really intended only for private insurers. Hospitals are able to discount that later on, but of course most patients don't know to ask for this. Medical billing is separate from health insurance, and it's a whole complex messy beast in its own right.
a_c_s 9y ago
Price gouging, outside of a declared 'state of emergency', is totally legal in the USA. They can't be sued for it. (Though I agree with your frustration 100%)
creaghpatr 9y ago
As a matter of fact, most patients don't pay their medical bills, hospitals only collect about 20% of Patient A/R. The reason the ER facilities charge is so high is that people abuse the ER and threaten the lives of people who actually need saving. The ER can't legally turn people away and asking them to pay a bill is pretty fruitless, especially for underbanked Americans. Meanwhile, the hospitals jack up the charges to offset the losses on the aforementioned patients. Taxpayers subsidize these losses in addition to paying for health insurance.
- Cacti 9y ago
  I think you massively overestimate the costs of ER care for the uninsured that do not pay their bills. Charity costs are around 2.3% of operating expenses for your average non-profit hospital. 2.3% loss is not how you end up with bills that are 6, 10, or 15 times inflated. Poor people in the ER isn't what is driving health care or hospital costs.
Feniks 9y ago
Actually here in the Netherlands the health care insurers do exactly that. They negotiate HARD. Funny enough big pharma is usually willing to lower the price for meds. They make up for it by overcharging Americans I guess ;) Same with hospitals. Your radiology department is more expensive than the others? We'll stop contracting you and send our customers to another hospital.

chimeracoder 9y ago

> Serious question: can anyone point me to some good stories where someone just told these hospitals to fuck off when they try to charge hundreds of dollars for a band-aid or an aspirin? I suspect that would be my response. What happens? Do they just wreck your credit by turning you over to a collection agency? No, and in fact, self-paying (ie, uninsured) patients can pretty much always tell the hospital, "No, I'm not going to be able to pay $10,000, but if you give me a discount to $500, I can pay in cash today". Of course, most patients don't know they can do that. > Can they be sued for price gouging? I'd love to see them legally justify before the court some of this garbage pricing that varies by tens of thousands of percent between providers for commodity items like saline, bandages, and generic drugs. It's not really price gouging the way we generally use that term. Hospitals lose money per-patient on Medicare and Medicaid patients that they treat, and they have to make it back somehow. They way they do that is by marking up the rates for private insurers. By law, they can't present different initial prices to patients (or their insurers) based on their insurance status, so that means that uninsured patients end up seeing an initial bill that's really intended only for private insurers. Hospitals are able to discount that later on, but of course most patients don't know to ask for this. Medical billing is separate from health insurance, and it's a whole complex messy beast in its own right.

a_c_s 9y ago

Price gouging, outside of a declared 'state of emergency', is totally legal in the USA. They can't be sued for it. (Though I agree with your frustration 100%)

creaghpatr 9y ago

As a matter of fact, most patients don't pay their medical bills, hospitals only collect about 20% of Patient A/R. The reason the ER facilities charge is so high is that people abuse the ER and threaten the lives of people who actually need saving. The ER can't legally turn people away and asking them to pay a bill is pretty fruitless, especially for underbanked Americans. Meanwhile, the hospitals jack up the charges to offset the losses on the aforementioned patients. Taxpayers subsidize these losses in addition to paying for health insurance.

Cacti 9y ago
I think you massively overestimate the costs of ER care for the uninsured that do not pay their bills. Charity costs are around 2.3% of operating expenses for your average non-profit hospital. 2.3% loss is not how you end up with bills that are 6, 10, or 15 times inflated. Poor people in the ER isn't what is driving health care or hospital costs.

Feniks 9y ago

Actually here in the Netherlands the health care insurers do exactly that. They negotiate HARD. Funny enough big pharma is usually willing to lower the price for meds. They make up for it by overcharging Americans I guess ;) Same with hospitals. Your radiology department is more expensive than the others? We'll stop contracting you and send our customers to another hospital.