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Originally Posted by Buddahaid
Sure, and getting a $2600.00 bill for one hour of ER time with one x-ray is way more sensible. Seems someone is making money.
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Someone has to pay for those not paying. You'd get a bill like that at the University Hospital here—their collection rate is under 20% of what they bill. So they need to charge a lot to make up for dead beats.
Of course what the bill is has little to do with what would actually be paid. You bill $300, and the insurance sends a check for $170 and instead of dunning them, you say "thank you, come again."
That said, the facility fees are certainly a money maker. My wife waived a fee for a friend's son, and they still got an OR bill for several grand (insurance paid most of what was actually paid (less than the bill, be sure), presumably). She asked what my wife would have made, expecting it to be thousands and was surprised when she was told "Maybe $150 or $200." That was a emergency surgery, too. Hospital makes thousands, surgeon makes a couple hundred bucks. Note that her fee might have shown up on the bill as some multiple of that. It's bizarre, frankly.
tater