> this does not mean that they cared specifically about item A or B since the negotiation was over the basket. This explains why prices are some services surpr

> this does not mean that they cared specifically about item A or B since the negotiation was over the basket. This explains why prices are some services surprisingly high, while others are more normal. We've all heard about the $100+ cup of Advil line item in a bill. I never had thought about health care pricing before in this context. I'm sure both the hospital and the insurance come into the negotiation with existing datasets about the frequency of goods/services are billed for. The hospital knows what it will receive in aggregate from the hospital given a set of line item prices for all of its offered goods/services; conversely, the insurance company would have a rough sense of what they'd be paying. You get the short end of the stick if you end up consuming a proportionally higher amount of goods/services that were negotiated arbitrarily high price end.