Hospital billing

[gracehjs]

I just got the bill for my hip replacement. Fortunately medicare pays most of it. The total bill was $86000 with an insurance discount of $68,600. But what I cannot figure out is how I went through $50,600 of supplies in two days!!!

[Soquili]

Grace I hope your recovery is going well.

Hospitals cover the cost of providing services to uninsured and indigent patients by charging their other patients. For example if they provide a tablet they charge the cost of the entire container of tablets to each patient that receives a tablet.

[gracehjs]

Well pharmacy was $1900. The itemize stuff makes sense - its just $50,000 in supplies I do not understand.

[Soquili]

IV tubes, saline solutions, etc are charged to insured patients the same as medications. Then cost of an entire case (or what ever the unit of sale to the hospital may be) is charged to each patient that receives one of the supplies.

If you can get an itemized list of all the supplies you may find they charge you for pillow cases, sheets, etc. as well.

[ShapeShifter]

For example if they provide a tablet they charge the cost of the entire container of tablets to each patient that receives a tablet.

Wow, so if they get served a steak they get charged the cost of the entire beast?

[Soquili]

More likely the entire soybean crop, real meat is rarely served in a hospital in the US.

Almost 50 years ago while working my way through school I worked for the county hospital emergency room. One of my responsibilites was to itemize the supplies used for each patient to be sent to the business office. A typical suture kit back then contained six needles with silk thread preloaded. Many patients required stitches from one needle and thread. This meant often six patients would be served from one kit. Each patient was charged for the entire kit.

[gwpriester]

Yeah but just remember Grace, a lot of people were vehemently opposed to "Obamacare." Obviously these are not people who had to pay all or part of the cost of a costly operation such as yours.

I hope you have a speedy recovery and are running the high hurdles again soon.

[gracehjs]

I hope you have a speedy recovery and are running the high hurdles again soon.

Thanks I am already walking a lot faster than before. As I never figured out how to get over one hurdle, I think I will skip that.

[angelize]

That makes me very very glad to be a Canadian. Don't get me wrong our health care system has it's share of problems but Everyone here is covered by provincial health care and unless a surgery is cosmetic it is fully covered. And health care premiums are based on income levels. The downside is wait times. Some times it can take months to get to see a specialist. I'm still waiting for the results of some tests I had done a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping no news is good news

[a4hire]

Hope your doing well Grace. It's a shame that our country can't take care of it's own people.