Posted on 09/01/2014 11:53:04 AM PDT by Nachum
NBC News - The price to remove a gall bladder or replace a hip has spiked more than 20 percent during the past five years, according to an analysis of data collected for NBC News.
Surgery has bloomed into a $500 billion industry in the United States, where 80 to 100 million procedures are performed annually — a per-capita rate that's some 50 percent higher than in the European Union, said Dr. John Birkmeyer, a researcher and adjunct professor at the Dartmouth Institute and in the university's Community & Family Medicine program.
The reason? Expensive yet safer technologies and hospital consolidations that create medical monopolies, according to doctors and researchers.
For hospitals, surgery is the No. 1 revenue source. That encourages medical center administrators to ensure operating suites remain humming — an assembly-line mentality that can lead to unnecessary procedures and spiraling prices, experts say.
“The cost of surgery is growing at a surprising rate,” said Birkmeyer, a leading researcher on healthcare trends. He bases his calculations on national Medicare claims data.
A price check on four of the most common procedures reveals the inflationary trends hitting ORs since 2009:
Hernia repair, up 16 percent, with a "total fair price" of $5,056, according to Healthcare Bluebook.
Gall bladder removal, up 21 percent, with a "total fair price" of $5,532.
(Excerpt) Read more at wrcbtv.com ...
The list, Ping
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That’s what it’s going to come to unless conservatives-REAL conservatives - take over every aspect of the government and abolish this Obamacare debacle and throw everything about the health industry on the free market. Free market and an end to frivolous lawsuits reducing the cost of liability insurance for doctors and the costs of healthcare will drop like a rock.
LOL!
But, before that people will go where the cheapest care is and that will be in some doctor’s back room clinic, a Mexican clinic, or some Island somewhere on a medical vacation junket.
Money will run from the US economy like water.
Medical Procedures Philippines: Hospital Location and Cost Comparison to US
http://www.retireinphilippines.com/philmedical.htm
Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-28/heart-surgery-in-india-for-1-583-costs-106-385-in-u-s-.html
My husband just had a 20 minute outpatient procedure(upper endoscopy) at a local surgery center. The center’s cost alone was over $6,000. He had the same thing done about 3 years ago for aabout $4,000.
Ouch.
Total cost for my endoscopy 10 years ago was $1800.
Defer your observations/conclusions until you see the EOB (Explanation of Benefits) from your insurance carrier. You may discover that the "center’s cost" [charges] went up, but that the "Allowable Amount" stayed the same or went down, thus the same or lower reimbursement for the center. That's what's been happening at our Outpatient Center.
Meanwhile, the reimbursement to hospitals for outpatient procedures continues to far exceed the reimbursement to more economical outpatient centers.
As an example, our Center is reimbursed $1,500 for an outpatient, Laparoscopic Hernia Repair while our local hospital receives over $5,000 for the same outpatient procedure.
Not about health, not about healthcare, not about medicine...all about government control
On an NBC news site. Interesting.
Now when they start to have articles like this on a regular basic in NY and other blue states, you’ll know that people are starting to get hit over the head with the iconic hammer. But by that time it’s too late - all the infrastructure is all in place, and they are all prisoners of their own willful idiocy.
Five years ago, I had cysts removed from my back at my GP’s office, by his phys. assistant.
Cost, $80 for a small one, $120 for a larger one. BCBS paid.
After moving to Texas, one month ago I asked my new GP, to remove some back cysts. “Oh, we don’t do any surgery, I’ll send you to Dr. X.”
Go to Dr. X’s office, asked for a slice and dice in his office. “Oh, we don’t do surgery in the office, we’ll schedule you in the out-patient hospital across the street, and give you some ‘sedation’ for better pain management.”
So I go to the out-patient hospital, (partially owned by Dr. X and his associates) and get a few cysts removed.
The bill: Consultation $210; Surgery $2,400; Anesthesia $1,800; Hospital charges $8,756. So the total came to $13,166, versus the $200 charged for the procedure five years ago.
Everything the feral government touches it makes astronomically expensive.
I have nothing but contempt for the medical profession. They are charging as much as possible, more than the traffic can bear because they have a monopoly on life. They play god with skills that society paid a good chunk of the price for them to obtain.
I have about as much regard for their honesty and ethics as I do for lawyers.
They are as confiscatory as the government.
Money grubbers who think they deserve it.
Considering that food prices have spiked more than 50% in the same time period, that’s not so bad.
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