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The financials around US hospitals are something most don't understand. I didn't for a long time. For example, many procedures at a hospital lose the hospital
by mfer 5y ago
The financials around US hospitals are something most don't understand. I didn't for a long time.
For example, many procedures at a hospital lose the hospital money. They don't cover the cost. Other things cost more and make up the difference.
Another element is that most US hospitals are very inefficient in what they do. In the book The innovator's prescription you can read the technical details on how those inefficiencies happen.
- duped 5y agoHealthcare isn't supposed to make money, it's supposed to stave off death. Just like schools aren't supposed to make money, or the postal service, or the military. Framing things in the context of whether or not critical services to society make or lose money puts it in a fundamentally unfair context. I don't want hospitals to make a profit, or generate revenue. Every procedure should be losing money.
- refurb 5y agoHow do you pay staff without revenue? Building maintenance? Garbage collection? Even communist systems had budgets and financial rules.
- mfer 5y agoHospitals need to break even on finances. What they take in needs to cover their costs. Anything other than this needs to be subsidized by an outside organization.
- duped 5y agoExactly. Hospitals can't work like businesses or charities, they're a critical service that require federal, state, and local taxes to offset the cost of keeping communities healthy. It's called promoting the general welfare and it's one of the primary roles of governments. Clearly private institutions are failing.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]