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antigop

(12,778 posts)
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 09:39 PM Jun 2015

Wendell Potter: For-Profit Hospitals Mark Up Prices By More Than 1,000 Percent Because

Last edited Wed Jun 17, 2015, 09:12 AM - Edit history (1)

There’s Nothing To Stop Them

http://wendellpotter.com/2015/06/for-profit-hospitals-mark-up-prices-by-more-yhan-1000-percent-because-theres-nothing-to-stop-them/

If you think costs would come down if hospitals were all owned and operated by big for-profit corporations like Hospital Corporation of America, you might want to take a look at a study published last week by the journal Health Affairs.

Of the 50 U.S. hospitals that mark up prices the most, 49 of them are part of for-profit hospital chains, according to the study’s authors, Ge Bai of Washington & Lee University and Gerard Anderson of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Using 2012 data provided by 4,483 hospitals to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Bai and Anderson found that those 50 had an average markup of 1,013 percent over what Medicare pays for the thousands of items on hospitals’ “chargemasters.” (Chargemasters are lists of all the items and services hospitals bill for. Hospitals set their own charges. Few states set any limits on what hospitals can charge.) That’s almost three times the average markup at the other 4,433 hospitals. The average markup for all those other hospitals—most of them nonprofits—was 340 percent.

Of those high-markup 50, more than a fourth of them are owned and operated by Nashville-based Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). But with 14 hospitals on the list, HCA was just in second place. A full half of the top 50 are owned by HCA’s biggest rival, Community Health Systems, a Franklin, Tennessee company that operates 199 hospitals in 29 states.

At the very top of the markup list was North Okaloosa Medical Center in Crestview, Florida. That hospital, in the Sunshine State’s panhandle, had the distinction of marking up its costs an average of 1260 percent. The Atlantic’s Olga Khazan took a look at North Okaloosa’s markups. She found, for example, that the hospital charged $79,350 to treat a hemorrhage. That’s compared to Medicare’s reimbursement of $5,177.
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Wendell Potter: For-Profit Hospitals Mark Up Prices By More Than 1,000 Percent Because (Original Post) antigop Jun 2015 OP
Could you also add the link to the original Wendell Potter op-ed itself? n/t area51 Jun 2015 #1
oops...sorry...I updated the original post with the link. nt antigop Jun 2015 #2
privatization and profitization have never reduced the cost of anything Doctor_J Jun 2015 #3
I often Wondered Sparhawk60 Jun 2015 #4
nationalizing hospitals would be a good first step Mosby Jun 2015 #5
 

Doctor_J

(36,392 posts)
3. privatization and profitization have never reduced the cost of anything
Wed Jun 17, 2015, 12:19 PM
Jun 2015

How could it? It builds in a mark up of "as much as possible" by definition. That's OK for luxury items, but is despicable for things like healthcare and education.

Get used to it. Thanks to the president's sensible centrism, we're stuck with this forever

 

Sparhawk60

(359 posts)
4. I often Wondered
Fri Jun 19, 2015, 02:59 PM
Jun 2015

I often wondered how much medical care would cost if I showed up with a bag of money and asked "how much for X". No insurance forms, no paperwork, just cash on the table.

I used to go to a Dr. who had his cash prices posted by the front desk, and they seemed very reasonable. I wonder why more Doctors do not follow suit.

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