Also note that Medicare pays 10 cents on the dollar for everything on the chargemaster. Hospitals are priced to make a tiny bit of money on that, so a lab test

Also note that Medicare pays 10 cents on the dollar for everything on the chargemaster. Hospitals are priced to make a tiny bit of money on that, so a lab test with $20 of reagents and $10 of lab tech time goes on the chargemaster for about $300. 1 hour of doctor time easily pushes you into the high thousands on the chargemaster.