And, to be clear, they charged $19,000 for the stent, not "stent plus theater time to place it plus surgeon, anesthesiology, OR nurses", of course not. Those are all absolutely billed separately.
Also, in speaking with a vascular surgeon I know, their hourly rate is between 200-350/hr. The middlemen and hospitals have figured out how to milk this cow and they're feasting.
It took 2 months for the bill to arrive.
Healthcare in US is like legal extortion. You could literally bill for breathing hospital air and people would have to pay.
Don't be ridiculous. You'd be billed for air and hospital odor separately!
Though I should note that a delivery is usually more complex than simply waiting there for the little one to fall out, there is some after care and such that is being performed plus the doctor is usually not that cheap either. (They have a lot of student debt to pay off after all)
There is also a huge industry built along the lines of phony testing.
The term used for that think is called 'basin test', basically samples are flushed down the basin and made up numbers are put in reports. You can put in what you like as the doctors know the patient is healthy.
If I can source the same stents for cheaper than the hospital bills me, they should be required to erase them from the bill and accept them as material replacement.
It's not as if medical supplies are unavailable to the end consumer.
https://www.esutures.com/product/0-in-date/41-boston-scienti... Here are the stents available for under $1000.
When I had a broken finger and was uninsured, I was charged ~$40 for a finger splint that costs $7 at Walgreens (yeah, the very basic one made out of aluminum and blue foam).
Also, a word of advice - never ever pay what you were sent from the hospital right away. I personally throw most medical bills in the trash and wait until they call me, then negotiate it down to a fraction of what was billed, offering to pay in cash.
My situations varied, but when I had no insurance and was living off of savings, I found a generic "hardship" form and explained my situation to them - they waived 80% of the fee without much resistance. This is compared to the laughable discount of 2% they offered me on the spot if I paid in cash (at the moment of the visit)
In other situations, I'd imagine it's more a question of persistence, but I'd venture to say you can knock off at least 50% on _any_ hospital bill.
I recently bought a house, and my credit was 800+, so I don't think it does in any appreciable way.
That wasn't the gist of my post though. I was advocating more to resist the bullshit and to legislate something that allows the customer to replace materials instead of paying a hugely marked up item.
Same concept would be applicable, for example, for a car mechanic shop. Just because they billed me $600 for brake pads doesn't mean that they've actually provided me with a 10x markup of value on having bought brake pads myself for $60 - at some point this needs to be treated as "usury" (I don't know if there's a word for exorbitant markup on a regular good).
Another thing I would add - don't put your social security number on medical forms. I've never seen it enforced and there's no medical reason for them to have it.
This is actually good advice. It shocked me when I realised it. But it’s good advice.
They ended up dropping the bill altogether as insurance had already paid them.
I know the US system is different to what I grew up with (UK NHS), but I have had similar "treatment" when ill as a tourist in 3rd world countries: couple of pills / drip.
I understand that the difference of systems in regards to extensive care, but a couple of pills and a drip - why on earth is such basic care just not free to all?
I mean, I know this seems like just a snarky political comment. But it's just the honest answer. Our federal government is simply completely dysfunctional right now, incapable of solving anything.
For what it's worth, "Medicare for All" has been polling increasingly higher recently, due to more Americans being basically ready to give up on the current private system entirely.
Just now? It’s seemed dysfunctional to me since I was capable of understanding government, circa 15 years ago. My parents felt the same way 30 years ago, and their parents felt the same way 50 years ago.
> If I can source the same stents for cheaper than the hospital bills me, they should be required to erase them from the bill and accept them as material replacement.
Meh. The only reason they inflate supply costs is because that's where insurance negotiations let them. Mandating supplies must be available at-cost to consumers is just a stupid cost-shifting game. Consumers shouldn't care in particular about the cost of supplies — overall cost is what matters.
Price-fixing in general does not really work. The difference is made up somewhere. Things that would actually reduce pricing stupidity and surprise bills are obvious things like: increased pricing transparency, consumer stake in reducing costs (HDHPs are a stab in this direction), and single payer.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/press-release/2017/new-11-c...
> Mandating supplies must be available at-cost to consumers is just a stupid cost-shifting game.
That's not what I suggested in my post at all.
Also, if it reduces costs for the end consumer, what's the harm? Why should consumers subsidize hospitals with cutthroat billing departments who make up numbers out of thin air?
Not trivially? [1]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/18/uk-cancer-su...
Less profit for the company.
> Most do not have the time or expertise for that, nor would anyone want to do it.
Is that a joke? You can find most of those things with a 30 second Google search. I thought this was a forum with technically apt people?
Yes, mandating supplies be sold at-cost is exactly what you proposed:
> Hospitals should be legally mandated to accept replacement of materials in lieu of payment.
> If I can source the same stents for cheaper than the hospital bills me, they should be required to erase them from the bill and accept them as material replacement.
And to address:
> Also, if it reduces costs for the end consumer, what's the harm?
The problem is in the condition. At the end of the day, ineffective regulation increases costs for the consumer.
Healthcare can and should be heavily regulated, its not like buying a hammer.
I agree that regulation makes sense, just not with the extremely specific proposal that medical devices be sold at cost (or whatever slightly higher unit cost is available to consumers).
The supply chain has to be verifiable as genuine goods from the factory to the hospital floor. Trying to verify the authenticity of patient-supplied replacements would be a nightmare.
I wasn't actually seriously suggesting that patients be required to source the item physically, then physically deliver it to the hospital in person.
Also, people like you who force hospitals to chase you down to pay a bill are part of the reason why it's so expensive in the first place.
$10,920 for room charges is absolutely ludicrous.
I'm asking because a friend was in the hospital in the bay area for 7 days and his room and board was approximately $21,000
In regard to your friend ... his 7 x 2 = $14k. That's a LOT for basically a bed, blood draws daily, limited TV and cafeteria food, but in the center of Los Angeles, that's what you get.
About 5 years ago, I had 6 weeks in hospital, a total of 3 angiograms, one MRI scan...and then 5 stents (should have been 4, but they tore something and had to put in a covered one!).
The wait was mainly down to an unfortunate series of events: One stent was needed in a 'tricky' place and so I was timetabled to be operated on by a specialist surgeon elsewhere, but his father fell seriously ill so he went on leave. My first op was rebooked for another hospital...and they had a 'flu outbreak so ops were postponed. Eventually I was booked in elsewhere had a one hour ambulance transport ride for 'third time lucky'.
The stents were fitted in two separate operations about two weeks apart. The most notable expense I incurred was for data top-ups on my cellphone because hospital wifi was still being setup and hadn't quite made it to my ward.
The NHS gets a lot of flak, and it's by no means perfect, but it's generally there for you when you really need it.
PS: I'm on a slew of meds for my heart condition and T2 diabetes - all free at the point of collection.