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hospitals mark up their costs for insurance No they don't. Hospitals mark up for people paying cash. This is because they know most of the people paying cash w
by menloparkbum 18y ago
hospitals mark up their costs for insurance
No they don't. Hospitals mark up for people paying cash. This is because they know most of the people paying cash won't pay at all. The markup for people paying cash is about 3 times that what they bill the insurance company.
If you are paying cash they will always lower their bills big time to accomodate you.
This can happen but it's arbitrary. I needed to be hospitalized without insurance and the hospital wouldn't budge on the bill. Likewise I had a roommate who had a $40,000 concussion once and the hospital wouldn't negotiate that bill, either.
- rg 17y agoAn anecdote about hospital negotiation: I just got a bill for $7,000 for a two-hour visit to a San Francisco hospital emergency room. The bill arrived with a letter offering me a 20% discount if I paid directly (and claimed it back from my insurance or not, either way) versus if I asked them to submit an insurance claim, and another 20% discount for payment within 30 days. So the opening offer on the bill was to pay 40% less. This is probably in the neighborhood of what an insuror would pay, but the hospital saves a fortune in claims processing.