In case you missed it, a new analysis of U.S. medical bills has found hospitals typically charge uninsured emergency room patients four times as much as they’d take from Medicare for the same service.
What’s more, the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that ER patients routinely pay more than twice as much for healthcare services as they would be charged had they been performed in other parts of the hospital.
The research, by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, involved an analysis of charges by 12,337 ER physicians and 57,607 internal medicine physicians at 3,669 hospitals. Among the key findings:
For a $100 treatment in the ER, some hospitals were charging patients up to $1,260.
Internal medicine services for ER patients without insurance were typically charged 4.2 times more than what Medicare would pay, with some hospitals charging 12.6 times more.
More here
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6 comments:
Medical care is no longer about care it is about making money.
Simply not fair at all.
should be the same charge regardless of insurance proceeds.
Got a 500 hundred dollar ER bill for a gal bladder diagnosis, all they did was a cat scan and make me sit for two hours. And was after my insurence paid.
Apparently, agreements with insurance companies to offer discounts PRECLUDE giving that same discount to a cash customer.
In any other business that kind of collusion and price-fixing would send someone to jail.
Health Insurance companies should be not for profits. Period.
It is absurd to charge uninsured people more...if they had any money, they'd have insurance! For the Lord's sake - what has this country come to??? I will say this, insured or not, CHECK YOUR BILLS from the hospital. I've found so many incorrect charges on just one bill, it's outrageous.
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