General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA $10,169 blood test is everything wrong with American health care
http://www.vox.com/2014/8/15/6005953/a-10169-blood-test-is-everything-wrong-with-american-health-careThis is not a procedure where some hospitals are really great at lipid panels and some are terrible. There's just not space for quality variation: you are running blood through a machine and pressing buttons. That's it.
And that all makes it a bit baffling why, in California, a lipid panel can cost anywhere between $10 and $10,000. In either case, it is the exact same test....
"What we were trying to see is, when we get down the simplest, most basic form of medicine, how much variation is there in price?" says Renee Hsia, an associate professor at University of California, San Francisco who published the price data in a recent study.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)With the new law, I don't know how valid that is any more.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Doctors I am not so sure about. I mean for what they do I would think they are paid about right. Surgery for hours at a time. I have heard 28 hours straight depending on complicated surgery.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Economics -- 101
Surprise Factor -- 0
NikolaC
(1,276 posts)We had to take our son to the emergency room here recently on the advice of his doctor. The closest one was a well known university hospital. They had no rooms available so they set up chairs for us in a hallway. There were three doctors who came by and asked the same questions. They also ordered blood tests. The total bill for that 6 hour "stay" was over $13,000. The blood workup was over $3,300 and, after the insurance paid their portion, we are still on the hook for $2,000 of the bill.
We met our deductible that night. Thank goodness we had insurance! I cannot imagine what that bill would have been for someone who didn't.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)"bald-faced thievery."