Saw this on facebook, so I suppose it might not be real, but I don't see why it wouldn't be.
It is robbery. Hospitals in the US get rich, rich, rich. I live in Norway with excellent socialized medicine... no need to try to negotiate costs ahead of time. What crap. There are private hospitals in Norway also, if you don't want to wait for a non-emergency procedure. A friend of mine didn't want to wait several months for a hernia operation, so he went to a private, for-profit hospital, and paid the equivalent of $2500 for his surgery. This is actual cost + profit. $2500. I read a post from a guy who had a hernia operation in the United States and it cost $6600 total, the majority paid for by insurance. So if the whole thing can be done at a profit for $2500 in Norway, why does it cost 164% more in the U.S.? Because you're paying to make insurance companies and hospital CEOs rich. They are laughing at you as they funnel their money into lobbyists to oppose health care reform. And their message is winning out, at your expense. It drives me crazy to see the resistance in the United States to providing healthcare. Obamacare is a step in the right direction, but moving to a single-payer system would cut medical costs in half in the US, save everyone money, and the country would be happier, healthier and wealthier. Grrrr.
This is all pretty new, as well, at least according to my grandfather, with whom I've talked extensively about this. He was telling me he read something from about 20-30 years ago that an hour in surgery cost about a grand. That was it. You were charged for the doctor's time, and most of that thousand dollars went to the doctor. An appendix probably takes an hour or so (?) -- so you're paying a grand (not even counting insurance) to get an organ taken out of your body immediately upon feeling pain. Seems roughly fair to me. Now it's upwards of 50k.
Yeah, it may we be fake, but at the same time I've dealt with a lot of horsecockery like this in my own medical history. The moral of the story is, always always always pre-negotiate the price of any medical or dental services. Have them give it to you in writing. Obviously ER service is the exception to the rule, but you get the idea. I like to make it clear to doctors that I am paying for a professional service - as in, you give me results, I give you cash. (No results = no cash.) As in, a blood test may make you feel better, but if that doesn't help you make me feel better, you do that on your dime. I've found some doctors like to draw blood so they can run a battery of tests after you've left their office then they bill my insurance company, who only pay part then stick me with the rest. I think they do the tests partly to cover their asses, but mostly for the paycheck. They never share the results with me, so as far as I'm concerned they never happened, and I don't pay for them. These days I get the bill up-front, though.
All good advice. I'd add that it is also important to make sure that your insurance company covers whatever procedure you are having done. You may think it's routine stuff, but often they'll try as hard as they can not to pay for it. I had this happen with a surgery on my broken nose after being assaulted. BCBS called it an elective rhinoplasty, I called it having my nose broken, resting nearer my right ear than the center of my face. After letters from my physician and police reports, they still wouldn't pony up. At some point we settled on a compromise, but they never paid the full amount. Bastards.
It could very well be real. I wish I would have saved the itemized bill for my dogs leg amputation. It was nowhere near $55k, but it was still a hefty amount of money and some of the line items seemed ridiculous to me. There are certain things that I think should be well compensated for, for example the surgeon. That man or woman spent countless hours training to be able to remove your appendix and keep you alive. There's a cost for that. Charging $4k for one night in a hospital room is craziness though. Charging $7k for a CT Scan -nuts. I realize that the machine is a huge capital outlay for a hospital, but come on... $7500 for a recovery room they supposedly spent two hours in? If this is indeed accurate, #crime is an appropriate tag.