[txrefugee]

These outrageous differences in cost for the same procedures show that some thieves wear surgical masks. And it’s our money they are stealing. When is someone going to jail for this felony theft?

[The_Victor]

I wonder which hospital deals with more non-paying “customers?”

[buckalfa]

Capitalism and the market in play. Whatever the market will bear given that many hospital markets do not have competition.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Federal reimbursements are based on labor costs. Hospitals have little incentive to lower costs.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Wonder what that hospital Moochelle worked for was charging vs. the ones she was scaring the indigent patients away to?

[etcb]

The medical industry is almost the only business where you do not have the opportunity to discover the price you will be charged until after the service is provided. It is somewhat akin to a fast food restaurant refusing to post their prices and presenting you a bill for $2000.00 after you have eaten your hamburger.

[Sequoyah101]

The Feds have posted tremendously current data from 2011.

Good job.

http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html

[CodeToad]

Wanna really get pissed about medical costs? Get into wholesale medical supplies and medicines. The markups are staggering.

[albie]

So the Post is saying Obamacare will fix this?

[tjd1454]

We recently learned first-hand about the outrageous costs of health care. My son was in an accident and hurt his back. He was transported to hospital and spent the afternoon & evening in the ER room before being discharged. He had a bunch of x-rays, was on a bed in the hall - no room, no meals were offered him. The only medication was (finally) a Tylenol. They gave him an "off the shelf" back support (not customized), and let him go.

There was a parade of doctors who came over and briefly talked with him, some gave him a cursory look over. Now I know why - they all submitted their "consulting fees"

The cost for basically sitting in the ER for the better part of a day? $10,000. And my son doesn't have insurance through his job. Fortunately he also doesn't have any assets so, as they say, "you can only squeeze so much blood from a turnip"

[dirtymac]

from the start the article is very biased and the writer is a liar.

Specifically hospitals are prcluded by law from knowing what the other hospitals are charging. Medicare calld it price fixing. If it was ever determince that a hospital had access to anothers chrges or charge structure, people would/could have gone to jail.

[dirtymac]

BTW! he is talking about chrages to Mediare. Ask him to find out how much the hospitals were actually PAID for those procedures. Hospitals are mostly paid on a specific rate for a procdure, regardless of how much the hospital charges. Most hospital have a write off of about 65% of total charges due to the very low payment of Federal and State reimbursement rates. The only way a hospital can stay in business is to charge non-government payors much more that the cost of their procedures to make up for how little the government is willing to pay. Usually the govt payment is much less than the actual cost of performing a specific procedure. Those unreimbursed cost must be paid by someone and comes in the way of higher prices.

[Mike Darancette]

It is amazing how little a hospital/doctor will settle for in Medicare.