$30,000 for outpatient procedure!!!! UNBELIEVABLE

[VikingGnome]

Had minor outpatient procedure done back in December. Just got the bill. It is outrageous the amount the hospital is charging. Here's my itemized bill (rounded to dollars):

$456 Chest X-Ray
$800 CBC & electrolyte panel
$732 EKG
$11,567 Operating Room (Surgery time was 15 minutes)
$4,138 Recovery Room ( one hour)
$3,887 Anesthesia (Anesthesiologist just put a mask over my mouth and nose--no intubation)
$1,150 Pathology (examine tissue under microscope)
$3,451 Supplies (can't imagine what they were using to cost that much)
$618 IV solutions (liquid gold???)
$1,591 Pharmacy (what drugs cost that much?)
$546 Pharmacy (what OTHER drugs?)

TOTAL CHARGES = $28,935.09

MEDICARE paid $1,201.26. My Co-Pay is $398.40

[cosmo]

Medical providers are the new slave owners

Guess who gets to be the slaves

[qmx]

Little wonder Medicare's going broke and insurance costs are skyrocketing. Imagine $150 to $300+ for a cpap mask. DEAN

[Pugsy]

11 years ago I had my cervical spine surgery. It was done as an out patient. Nearly $20,000 back then but the one thing that stuck out ....$1,742.00 for a little titanium screw for the plate they put in my neck. I don't remember the actual fee for the plate but one little screw was nearly 2 grand.

[cosmo]

I have a few of those screws in me. I wonder if i can pawn it

[johnthomasmacdonald]

and if you didn't have insurance, you'd be liable for the whole amount - it's a disgrace

$4000 for an hour in the recovery room - all these charges are a joke - they might as well charge $4 million since the amounts bear no relation to the actual costs

[LSAT]

Had minor outpatient procedure done back in December. Just got the bill. It is outrageous the amount the hospital is charging. Here's my itemized bill (rounded to dollars):

$456 Chest X-Ray
$800 CBC & electrolyte panel
$732 EKG
$11,567 Operating Room (Surgery time was 15 minutes)
$4,138 Recovery Room ( one hour)
$3,887 Anesthesia (Anesthesiologist just put a mask over my mouth and nose--no intubation)
$1,150 Pathology (examine tissue under microscope)
$3,451 Supplies (can't imagine what they were using to cost that much)
$618 IV solutions (liquid gold???)
$1,591 Pharmacy (what drugs cost that much?)
$546 Pharmacy (what OTHER drugs?)

TOTAL CHARGES = $28,935.09

MEDICARE paid $1,201.26. My Co-Pay is $398.40

All these comments about the Medical providers getting rich and Medicare going broke....
Did you read what Medicare actually paid the provider??? This particular provider is not getting rich on a $1600 payment for $28,000 in services even if the charges are obscene.

[ems]

My sister had shoulder surgery a few months back and went home the same day. The bill for the hospital alone was $100,000.00! Yes, I said $100,000.00!

[johnthomasmacdonald]

LSAT wrote: " All these comments about the Medical providers getting rich and Medicare going broke....
Did you read what Medicare actually paid the provider??? This particular provider is not getting rich on a $1600 payment for $28,000 in services even if the charges are obscene."

I guarantee that the REAL cost is actually a whole lot closer to $1600 than it is to $30,000. Whatever amount is actually being spent on health care in the US it is more than double per capita of ANY other country on the planet - and as to outcome, we come in around 40th in health and life expectency

[LSAT]

LSAT wrote: " All these comments about the Medical providers getting rich and Medicare going broke....
Did you read what Medicare actually paid the provider??? This particular provider is not getting rich on a $1600 payment for $28,000 in services even if the charges are obscene."

I guarantee that the REAL cost is actually a whole lot closer to $1600 than it is to $30,000. Whatever amount is actually being spent on health care in the US it is more than double per capita of ANY other country on the planet - and as to outcome, we come in around 40th in health and life expectency

Mainly because of obesity...not because the healthcare is bad.

[mcpascaln]

Wow, the health care cost is way expensive. I do not know how the recent new Obamacare factor in. Might that be a relief for you or a burden?

[Slartybartfast]

That's what happens when a business and its customer lose contact with each other. In this case the middleman, the health care administrators, are an industry unto themselves with buildings, CEOs, boards of directors, vice presidents, directors, managers, supervisors, each with a staff and their own administrative support and benefits and 401(k), all of whom are riding herd on the people who actually do the work. If everyone paid their doctors, the lab, whatever, directly lots of things would change.

My PCP doesn't accept insurance. He operates a 3 person store and if you want to submit a bill for insurance, he'll give you a receipt with the codes marked, but otherwise, you're on your own. I don't go to him unless I really need to because it costs me money. My friend's wife is a hypochondriac and sees her doctor for anything, or nothing at all because they have insurance. Well, so do I, but I don't use it.

I don't think having the government administrate it instead of BCBS is going to make things any better, other than the reasonable provisions like not excluding pre-existing conditions, etc.

[Slartybartfast]

The whole thing's a racket. When my daughter was born, I got a bill for $9000 from the hospital. My insurance had paid 80%, and with my deductable, that's what I owed. The OB's wife handled the insurance billing. When my wife said she was surprised at how much we owed for a no-complications delivery of a healthy (and beautiful) baby girl, the doc's wife said, "Oh, here, let me see what I can do. So she took the bill and about 10 days later, we got a bill from BCBS for $4000. Then we got another one showing the bill was now $2300. Then we got another bill that said we owed nothing. Go figure.

[johnthomasmacdonald]

lsat wrote:
Mainly because of obesity...not because the healthcare is bad."

Funny how you don't consider the MUCH higher smoking rates of europeans and how when the world health organization looks at the numbers they blame the poor health in the US on the 10s of millions of americans with no insurance - but i guess you are more of an expert

[VikingGnome]

There a large number of uninsured gang violence emergencies that can sink most city hospitals (shootings, stabbings, blunt force trauma). The victims have money made through the illegal drug industry so they pay nothing for millions of dollars of healthcare.

Personally, I don't know if I want to live to be 90+. I have 5 elderly relatives all 90+ that lived healthy all their lives (no smoking, no alcohol, low fat diet, etc.) All of them are so senile they don't even know their own adult children when they visit. What good is it to live long enough to be too senile to have a decent life? I don't care if other countries have longer life expectancy. The longer you live, the more likely you will have costly medical care at the end and probably won't have any intelligence left. And the burden on your adult children to care for you. NO THANKS.