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)
Theres 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/
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 studys 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.) Thats almost three times the average markup at the other 4,433 hospitals. The average markup for all those other hospitalsmost of them nonprofitswas 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 HCAs 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 States panhandle, had the distinction of marking up its costs an average of 1260 percent. The Atlantics Olga Khazan took a look at North Okaloosas markups. She found, for example, that the hospital charged $79,350 to treat a hemorrhage. Thats compared to Medicares reimbursement of $5,177.
area51
(11,909 posts)antigop
(12,778 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)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)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.
Mosby
(16,311 posts)to control health care costs.