5 ms·

The article makes it clear the crazy-high rates for these drugs aren't because of the price hospitals pay for the drugs, but hospital mark-up.

lotsofpulp 2y ago
Does the medicine expire quickly? Or does the cost of storing it/administer it differ from other medicine? Hospital profit margins don’t seem particularly high (~10%). https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HCA/hca-healthcare/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HCA/hca-healthcare... The other publicly listed company I could find is Tenet, which doesn’t do so well: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/THC/tenet-healthcare/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/THC/tenet-healthca... > Why the high price? One explanation is that hospitals can — and do — mark up products to balance overhead costs and generate revenue. This is something all businesses do. Some products/services are sold at higher margin than other products/services, for a variety of reasons. Edit: CHS is the other large publicly listed hospital company, also has very low profit margins. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHSCP/chs-inc/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHSCP/chs-inc/prof...
burnt-resistor 2y ago
More and more hospitals are owned by for-profit corporations that own many rather than administered by municipalities and non-profits. They're all about profits, rarely outcomes, as the evidence shows.
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  This doesn’t seem to be true, at least as of 2013: https://www.statista.com/statistics/824788/total-number-of-for-profit-hospitals-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/824788/total-number-of-f... The numbers seem like they trend downwards, with 1,219 in 2024. https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2024/01/fast-facts-on-us-hospitals-2024-20240112.pdf https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2024/01/fast-fac... The two hospitals in the linked article are government owned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomar_Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomar_Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rady_Children%27s_Hospital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rady_Children%27s_Hospital
  - burnt-resistor 2y ago
    Then you haven't been paying attention or your sources are inadequate. > From 2013 to 2017, nearly 1 in 5 of the nation's 5,500-plus hospitals were acquired or merged with another hospital https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2018-07-23/what-happens-when-a-community-hospital-is-sold-to-a-large-corporation https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/... https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/the-healthcare-divide/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/the-healthcar... https://hms.harvard.edu/news/what-happens-when-private-equity-takes-over-hospital https://hms.harvard.edu/news/what-happens-when-private-equit...
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- bell-cot 2y ago
  My experience (SE Michigan) is that a large "non-profit" hospital can be every bit as horrible as a for-profit one. There ain't no "be nice" requirement in the legal definition of nonprofit. And once you're talking billions of dollars, with big-ego executives and income streams that are independent of the org's actual do-good cred...yeah. Things get very feudal.

lotsofpulp 2y ago

Does the medicine expire quickly? Or does the cost of storing it/administer it differ from other medicine? Hospital profit margins don’t seem particularly high (~10%). https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HCA/hca-healthcare/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HCA/hca-healthcare... The other publicly listed company I could find is Tenet, which doesn’t do so well: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/THC/tenet-healthcare/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/THC/tenet-healthca... > Why the high price? One explanation is that hospitals can — and do — mark up products to balance overhead costs and generate revenue. This is something all businesses do. Some products/services are sold at higher margin than other products/services, for a variety of reasons. Edit: CHS is the other large publicly listed hospital company, also has very low profit margins. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHSCP/chs-inc/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHSCP/chs-inc/prof...

burnt-resistor 2y ago

More and more hospitals are owned by for-profit corporations that own many rather than administered by municipalities and non-profits. They're all about profits, rarely outcomes, as the evidence shows.

lotsofpulp 2y ago
This doesn’t seem to be true, at least as of 2013: https://www.statista.com/statistics/824788/total-number-of-for-profit-hospitals-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/824788/total-number-of-f... The numbers seem like they trend downwards, with 1,219 in 2024. https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2024/01/fast-facts-on-us-hospitals-2024-20240112.pdf https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2024/01/fast-fac... The two hospitals in the linked article are government owned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomar_Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomar_Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rady_Children%27s_Hospital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rady_Children%27s_Hospital
- burnt-resistor 2y ago
  Then you haven't been paying attention or your sources are inadequate. > From 2013 to 2017, nearly 1 in 5 of the nation's 5,500-plus hospitals were acquired or merged with another hospital https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2018-07-23/what-happens-when-a-community-hospital-is-sold-to-a-large-corporation https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/... https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/the-healthcare-divide/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/the-healthcar... https://hms.harvard.edu/news/what-happens-when-private-equity-takes-over-hospital https://hms.harvard.edu/news/what-happens-when-private-equit...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
bell-cot 2y ago
My experience (SE Michigan) is that a large "non-profit" hospital can be every bit as horrible as a for-profit one. There ain't no "be nice" requirement in the legal definition of nonprofit. And once you're talking billions of dollars, with big-ego executives and income streams that are independent of the org's actual do-good cred...yeah. Things get very feudal.