American healthcare system, documented. 7-hour stay at an emergency room for a kidney stone. One CT scan, four doses of pain meds, a plastic container to catch the stone.— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) November 17, 2019
$17,687.48.
My insurance paid $7,868.33. The hospital wrote off $9,494.15. I paid $325.00 out of pocket. pic.twitter.com/cLKCwfmkQe
ICYMI:
ReplyDelete"So, a $100,000 bill, the hospital collects $13,000. They claim that they lost $87,000.
This $87,000 loss maintains the fiction of their not-for-profit status, but it also provides the basis for a kickback the federal government sends to this hospital in the form of what's called Disproportionate Share Hospital payments.
So, when you hear uncompensated care, that is the $87,000 that your friend saw written off on the difference between hospital insurance and what insurance paid.
So, the fact is, the hospital made money on that case. But they claimed that they lost $87,000.
And then that fictional loss provides the basis for a kickback from the federal government, called--it's uncompensated care or DSH, Disproportionate Share Hospital payments. So, as I thought about this, I began to realize that there's a lot of people in on this scam. Including the insurance companies. I mean, why would an insurance company agree to play along with this hospital? Well, the insurance company actually wants an inflated charge because then, for employers they work with, they can show that the savings that dealing with that particular insurance company generates is very, very large."
via https://www.econtalk.org/keith-smith-on-free-market-health-care/
@Pete: Great summary!
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