A pack of for-profit hospitals are taking too many liberties with their for-profit names. A new study by Health Affairs found 50 hospitals in the U.S. have markups over 10 times the actual cost of care. The data was found using 2012 Medicare cost reports.
At the top of the list is North Okaloosa Medical Center, located about an hour outside of Pensacola, Fla. The hospital was found to charge uninsured patients 12.6 times the actual cost of patient care. A typical hospital charges 3.4 times the cost of patient care.
The largest numbers of the hospitals on the list – 20 – are in Florida. Of the 50, 49 are for-profit and 46 are owned by for-profit hospital systems. One for-profit hospital system, Community Health Systems, owns and operates 25 of the hospitals on the list. Hospital Corporation of America operates 14 others.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
4 comments:
Should be insured.
Should be able to actually afford to be insured.
That is why they screw the rest of us over to pay for their creed by charging the Freebies 10x's more
"Healthcare reform" as in "affordable care" was, and still is, desperately needed. Mandatory purchase of (mostly unaffordable) health insurance is not addressing the real problem, it's just making the insurance companies rich.
A good start would have been to mandate that the private, self paying customer be charged no more than the rate the insurance companies pay.
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