Hospitals and Profits

Recently I posted about the high cost of medicine in this country; more than any developed country.

One of the reasons is the unregulated profits of hospitals and insurers. If we are going to make health care a mandatory benefit (and we should) we need to regulate the insane profits.

For example, a physician doing stitches in their office; or in an urgent care center will get about $100-$200 for the entire procedure; and most often follow up visits are included. However if that urgent care center is associated with a hospital; they can bill ER fees for essentially the same services. And most of the time the insurance pays for most if it. Of course we end up paying the insurance plus a 30-40% margin for their profit and administration.

Until we can rein in the excess costs healthcare in this country will have several tiers and high costs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/health/as-hospital-costs-soar-single-stitch-tops-500.html?_r=0