healthcare cost

my wife just had a baby and the amount of money that my insurance and i were charged for simple procedures was astounding. 75 dollars for a lab draw, 400 for the md to check things out the day after delivery when he was already on the floor with other pts. about a thousand for an ultrasound. i mean i can do an ekg, labs, and ct in under an hour without thinking about it. i just didn't realize how much it actually cost. i mean over 20,000 to have an uneventful vaginal delivery when we checked out of the hospital early.

what do you all think the cause of this is. part of me thinks this is just insane and the other part is thinking why am i only getting twenty some dollars an hour when somebody is making a ridiculous amount off of my work.
Quote from dhellwegemy wife just had a baby and the amount of money that my insurance and i were charged for simple procedures was astounding. 75 dollars for a lab draw, 400 for the md to check things out the day after delivery when he was already on the floor with other pts. about a thousand for an ultrasound. i mean i can do an ekg, labs, and ct in under an hour without thinking about it. i just didn't realize how much it actually cost. i mean over 20,000 to have an uneventful vaginal delivery when we checked out of the hospital early. what do you all think the cause of this is. part of me thinks this is just insane and the other part is thinking why am i only getting twenty some dollars an hour when somebody is making a ridiculous amount off of my work.

I just got an ED bill of 1/2 a liter of IV fluid that my son needed on the 4th of July, following an eventful recovery from having his tonsils removed. More than $3000 for a 3 hour stay, an IV start and a 1/2 liter bag of fluid, a PA visit and the nurse stopping by about 4 times. He needed no diagnostic services and any of our local urgent care clinic's would have done but none of them would see a 4 year old. Our insurance paid about 1/2 as "their rate". But I still thought the original bill was excessive. I have yet to get the bill for the second IV that was done at the ENT clinic.

Eerybody wants their piece of the pie.......I agree with xtxrn.....PhD of greed

I handle claims escalations and issues at a health insurance company. I've seen pediatric offices charge $75 for a disposable diaper. Thankfully the contract with the insurance company protects members against outrages charges, but unfortunately, the uninsured are not protected against it. A practice or hospital could very well send the uninsured into debt for thousands of dollars for a very small service. Labs are reimbursed by insurance companies for pennies on the dollar but if the patient has no insurance, they're on the hook for $500, whereas if they had insurance, the lab would have accepted their contractual $16.34 and wrote off the rest. It's crazy. I definitely agree we are in major need of an overhaul.

Aaccck! I just typed out a post and it disappeared into the ether....dang. Short version....I agree with all the stuff xtxrn said, you go sister!

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I sincerely regret that more nurses do not have a basic understanding of cost center accounting.When you are charged $1000 for an ultrasound, this includes:1. the total cost of purchase, or the total value of the multi-year lease on the machine itself, divided by the number of procedures it is expected to perform during its expected life -- a "per procedure" charge -- with some variability based on the type of diagnostic procedure (how long it takes, etc.)2. some number allocated to the resources required to keep that machine running -- supplies, periodic maintenance, electricity, etc.3. the cost of the radiology tech staff4. the cost of the radiologist or other provider who interprets/reads the images5. some overhead ... as in, hospital escort or CNA or tech staff who may have transported you to/from your room, etc.The same is true for any other line item you may find on a hospital bill. A charge of x for a med includes pharmacy staff & resources, nursing staff, electronic delivery systems such as a Pyxis, etc.BTW -- it can be futile to compare apples & oranges ... but I delivered my child in 1994 at a total cost of ~ $18,000. So your figure, 17 years later, doesn't really faze me too much.

HOLY CATS ! A few weeks ago I was sent from doc, office to the er and I ended up walking out because of the weight time . the doc. checked my bs 1once and the er did it twice befor i left and i just got a bill for $90.00 for the 3 test are thay out of there mind I could it for free and next time i have to go I will .

I think it's unfortunate that the new health care reform laws don't target the front-end of the problem--exorbitant fees for services. Like someone above noted, having medical insurance can somewhat protect you from these costs by negotiating an acceptable price with the provider. With Medicare, this is called accepting assignment, where there are huge adjustments (deductions) to bills which brings the fees down tothe contracted/accepted amount. But yes, the uninsured don't have this privilege. BUT--with the new health care reform, I'm hoping that all Americans will eventually have this protection...we shall see.

Bad debt, charity care.Entitlement programs.Government regulations.Employee sponsored health insurance.

Quote from AltraI sincerely regret that more nurses do not have a basic understanding of cost center accounting.When you are charged $1000 for an ultrasound, this includes:1. the total cost of purchase, or the total value of the multi-year lease on the machine itself, divided by the number of procedures it is expected to perform during its expected life -- a "per procedure" charge -- with some variability based on the type of diagnostic procedure (how long it takes, etc.)2. some number allocated to the resources required to keep that machine running -- supplies, periodic maintenance, electricity, etc.3. the cost of the radiology tech staff4. the cost of the radiologist or other provider who interprets/reads the images5. some overhead ... as in, hospital escort or CNA or tech staff who may have transported you to/from your room, etc.The same is true for any other line item you may find on a hospital bill. A charge of x for a med includes pharmacy staff & resources, nursing staff, electronic delivery systems such as a Pyxis, etc.BTW -- it can be futile to compare apples & oranges ... but I delivered my child in 1994 at a total cost of ~ $18,000. So your figure, 17 years later, doesn't really faze me too much.

to the post above about it costing 17 grand in 1994. i must say my wife did it natural without any pain intervention. which may change the contrast. however, altra made a good point about overhead cost that i often forget about. for example when i was a waiter we up charged 4times the amount for every bottle of wine and still struggled to make a profit. i guess where i am upset is from my standpoint my practice seemed so simple. i mean me and my residence used to throw in a lactic acid on an ABG simply because i already was doing a risky ART stick. but now im starting to think is this fair to the pt/insurance comp. for us to do this. i dont even know anymore. pt care or to be cost efficient. in this economy i think as providers the shift is going to have to be cost efficient care. which i dont know if im ok with or not. but altra is correct i didnt and still dont understand the billing process.