hospital costs

[Guest guest]

> Abijann, hospital costs remind me of the uproar years ago about the

> military/industrial costs where the goverment was being billed things like

> $1000.00 for a hammer and either stupid enough or corrupt enough to pay

> it. Don't know if that was evcr solved or if we are still paying.

>

> When my oldest son was born a preemie, I got a bill on him for $200,000 +

> dollars. They delivered it UPS - lol. Going through it, there were

> charges like $10.00 for a bar of 's Purpose soap. Honestly I don't

> remember them ever using that soap on him but as I told them I knew it was

> a rather expensive soap - $2.00 or $3.00 per bar at Walmart and offered to

> bring them some . Each dose of lasix was terribly expensive, yet you

> could get an entire bottle prescribed to you back then for something like

> $6.00. And the list goes on..... One doctor came in my room before my

> son was born and told me he was the do all end all and was going to take

> care of us. I was there 3 weeks, was there 98 days. We never saw

> him again but he had the audacity to bill us $1500.00 for that 10 minutes.

> I called the insurance company and told them if they wanted to pay him I

> didn't figure I could stop it but I sure wouldn't pay him. They requested

> an itemization from him and the charges went down to $75.00 - still

> outrageous for 10 minutes of self-promoting Bull Shit, but far better than

> $1500.00. Any way that seems to be at least one reason for exhoribant

> costs and I have no idea why the insurance companies pay it - it smells of

> corruption also.

> Maybe that is why some insurances are more easily accepted by the

> hosipital than others.

>

>

>

>> 1.2. Mac

>> Posted by: " abijann " no_reply abijann

>> Date: Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:08 am ((PDT))

>>

>> The very last thing that happened before my husband was to be

>> placed on the transplant list was the checking of our insurance

>> to see whether it would cover the costs. They don't tell you

>> that unless you have great insurance or the money is given by

>> an organization, or you have the money to pay for it...that you

>> won't be placed on the list...cause the would be discrimination.

>> Some Transplant Center hospitals post this on their site and

>> others don't mention it. Hospital state that they cannot afford

>> to just absorb the costs of the hospital facility for transplant

>> patients. I notice that the cost of the hospital was 50 fold from

>> what patients paid the surgeon who actually did the operation itself.

>> It really isn't the doctors who are making the money in these

>> cases, it is the hospitals and staff who take care of the patient

>> after it is all over.

>>

>> The hospital provides you with any room they might have. They

>> give you three meals a day. They have their nursing staff there

>> and you get testing done there also. For the money you paid the

>> hospital...you could go to a resort and get massages everyday,

>> three meals a day and higher your own nursing staff to watch over

>> you and still it would never touch the amount you would pay for

>> the service. I watched a program where patients are going over

>> seas and being treated like royalty and the transplant never

>> even touched the amount we here in the USA have. Don't know

>> whether or not the surgeons are great...but my husband surgeon

>> was in other countries and had training there before coming

>> to the transplant hospital here.

>