2 ms·

I still don't see how. Buy some companies, double the prices. That part is clear. But did they manage to double the prices? Surely the previous owners didn't a

by Arnt 5y ago

I still don't see how. Buy some companies, double the prices. That part is clear. But did they manage to double the prices? Surely the previous owners didn't actively try to keep prices at half of what the customers would pay.

natpalmer1776 5y ago
Welcome to the wild world of medical billing in the United States. They have a captive market that doesn't get to choose when or how much they're willing to pay for the critical service, thus when the service is rendered the customer has no recourse but to 'pay' whatever ridiculous number you come up with. They will extract as much as possible from uninsured patients before having to send the bill to collections, at which point since selling a debt to collections gives a fraction of the whole... the bigger the whole the bigger the return. Insured patients are a mixed bag of the former and the "discounted rate", "co-insurance" and "co-pay" scenarios where the costs land somewhere in the range of "reasonable" to "you better get a scholarship timmy"
- Arnt 5y ago
  Fine, except that presumably the previous owners knew all this, and they charged half as much. Not 5% less, not 10% less. These people were able to double the prices, and how they did that is really the remarkable part of "how".
Ekaros 5y ago
Not everyone chooses to extract maximum price. And even if there is a real moat that there very likely is in Air Ambulance due to costs like equipment and maintenance, regulation and running costs. If you raise price too much someone will enter the market leading once again to competition. And probably worse long term outcome. It is likely one of the market where demand doesn't follow the supply, but might also follow the price negatively.
- Arnt 5y ago
  Not everyone… so you're really saying that the key "how" was the way in which these people found a market where the current vendors chose, on average, to extract only half of the maximum price.

by Arnt 5y ago

natpalmer1776 5y ago

Welcome to the wild world of medical billing in the United States. They have a captive market that doesn't get to choose when or how much they're willing to pay for the critical service, thus when the service is rendered the customer has no recourse but to 'pay' whatever ridiculous number you come up with. They will extract as much as possible from uninsured patients before having to send the bill to collections, at which point since selling a debt to collections gives a fraction of the whole... the bigger the whole the bigger the return. Insured patients are a mixed bag of the former and the "discounted rate", "co-insurance" and "co-pay" scenarios where the costs land somewhere in the range of "reasonable" to "you better get a scholarship timmy"

Arnt 5y ago
Fine, except that presumably the previous owners knew all this, and they charged half as much. Not 5% less, not 10% less. These people were able to double the prices, and how they did that is really the remarkable part of "how".

Ekaros 5y ago

Not everyone chooses to extract maximum price. And even if there is a real moat that there very likely is in Air Ambulance due to costs like equipment and maintenance, regulation and running costs. If you raise price too much someone will enter the market leading once again to competition. And probably worse long term outcome. It is likely one of the market where demand doesn't follow the supply, but might also follow the price negatively.

Arnt 5y ago
Not everyone… so you're really saying that the key "how" was the way in which these people found a market where the current vendors chose, on average, to extract only half of the maximum price.