Home Fire Alarm Systems

It was not long ago, someone I know who do not have health insurance, but I had some serious medical problems ended up in hospital for a few weeks. Some of the procedures that should be done, but nothing that most people would consider too "radical." Finally, projects were presented, and were about half a million dollars to someone who has not had something like that. You hear stories of crazy medical expenses, but what few people know is that the reality of hospital bills can often be several orders of magnitude crazier than most people expect. Last week, one of my friends posted the following picture to Facebook, noting that when your regular physician billing statement of assurance up to seven digits (ie million), which is clearly messed up.

area a few years ago, people have tried to dig money Planet and demystify some of the secrets of the medical bills, but only scratched.

Stephen Brill has a very long, but absolutely fascinating, a detailed analysis of the folly of medical billing for Time magazine. This is a truly amazing piece, which should open the eyes of many people. It will take some time, but find time to read it, just to get an idea of ??how totally messed up the whole system. I worked on a few other stories on real activity in the pharmaceutical vague things, but this article really shines a light on the belly of the wicked healthcare system. As Brill said, a large part of the health care debate is focused on "but who will pay for these things." But what tends to forget is

why the crazy price

When care becomes a matter of life or death, the sum claimed by the healthcare ecosystem reaches a different order of magnitude of batch production tickets for people who can 't focus on them, let alone pay. Shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2011, a patient who called Steven D. and his wife Alice knew they were simply save time. The crucial question was, how much time worth? As Alice, who makes about $ 40,000 a year running a daycare in her home, said: "[Steven] kept saying he wanted until the last minute he could get whatever But he had thought. cost and how all this debt would leave me and my daughter. "When Steven D. died at his home in northern California in November, had lived for a further period of 11 months., And Alice had met invoices totaling $ 902,452. Prime bill family - for $ 348,000 - which came when Steven returned to Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, was full of all the usual benefits ChargeMaster credits: $ 18 each for 88 test strips diabetes Amazon sold in boxes of 50 for $ 27.85, $ 24 each for 19 tablets of niacin drugstore for five cents each. There were four boxes of sterile gauze for 77 $ each. none of this was part of what you have in return for royalties Seton for services for the intensive care unit for two days at $ 13,225 per day, 12 days in the critical unit $ 7,315 per day and a day in a standard room (all totaling $ 120,116 over 15 days). There was also $ 20,886 to $ 24.251 for the work of GCT and laboratory. Alice answered my question about the apparent overload on the invoice items such as diabetes test strips or gauze as well as Ms. Lincoln, the famous joke, it could be asked what he thought of the works. "Are you kidding?" he said. "I'm dealing with a husband who had just been told that it has a stage IV breast cancer. That's all you can focus on ... Do you think I watched items in the accounts? I looked at the total. "

If we want a real solution to the rising costs of health care (which is a huge burden on the economy), it must start there. Unfortunately, those who like bandits in this system have enormous political influence, and have no interest in allowing easy money disappear.

Throughout the piece, Brill discusses repeatedly "ChargeMaster", which is actually the internal price list in each hospital, which has no basis in reality but some patients poor, uninsured or underinsured, often hit on the head with it. Throughout the article, Brill details again and again and again how the hospital administrators and spokesman refused to answer the ChargeMaster all, when you fly like little because that so few people actually pay the price list. But they completely ignore a lot of points, even some patients charged in advance

for these things, and not a

never said that prices are negotiable, although all are.

What you see is a system where institutions supposedly "non-profit" and "charity" earn huge profits - while begging the public for donations and suggesting that any effort to reign in costs that put people at risk by reducing the necessary hospital services. Sometimes these statements are so obviously shit is really disgusting.

In December, when the New York Times published an article about how an agreement deficit could jeopardize payments hospitals, Steven Safyer, CEO of Montefiore Medical Center, a large non-profit hospital in the Bronx, complains: "There is no such thing as a cut to a provider who is not a beneficiary reduction ... This is not crying wolf. "

Safyer is crying wolf seems worth about $ 196.8 million, according to the most recent tax return to the public hospital. This was the result of operation of the hospital, according to their 2010 return. 2.586 billion dollars with turnover - 99.4% of which came from billing patients and 0.6% of events fundraising and other charitable donations - Safyer company is more than six times the most famous in the Bronx, New York Yankees. Surely, without cutting services to beneficiaries may reduce Safyer must be among the best in the Bronx Yankees not pay: hers, which was $ 4,065,000, or CFO ($ 3,243,000), Executive Vice President ($ 2,220,000) or the head of the dental department (1798. $ 000).

Sometimes these stories make you wonder if some of these organizations 'charitable' deserve to be called charities throughout:

Mercy Hospital is owned by an organization under the auspices of the Catholic Church called the Sisters of Mercy. Its mission, as described in its latest filing with the IRS as a charitable organization exempt from tax, "is the exercise of the healing ministry of Jesus by promoting health and well-being.". The global chain ... had $ 4.28 million in revenue this year. His hospital, Springfield Missouri (population 160.660), was 880.7 million dollars in revenues and an operating income of 319 million dollars, depending on your federal return. frameworks income of the parent company appears on IRS documents covering various entities Mercy lock non-profit companies. Mercy President and CEO Lynn Britton was $ 1,930,000, and vice Executive President, Myra Aubuchon, received $ 3.7 million, the report said Mercy. Altogether, seven executives Mercy Health paid more than $ 1 million each. A note at the end of an audit by Ernst & Young, who is attached to the filing of IRS says Mercy chain, taking care of charity value of 3.2% of their income from the previous year. however, state auditors that the value of care is based charges on all invoices, not the actual cost of the Mercy of providing these services - in other words, the value ChargeMaster. Assuming that the actual costs of Mercy are one tenth of these values ??ChargeMaster - are probably less - while in the care of the charity Mercy cost about three-tenths of 1% of their income, or about $ 13 million to $ 4, $ 28 billion. Although I think that it is a bit of a cheap shot show repeatedly CEO salaries, the real question is how these hospitals can raise prices without any basis in reality, just because they know they can do. Even if they recognize most people do not pay fees, these projects are still sent there, generating tremendous stress.

stories show overload fulfill the role and demonstrate a key point in all this. For all the talk of "free market" health, there is nothing in our health care system is a something of a free market. You "captive customers" really almost no price elasticity, combined with a system in which it is rare that buyers were in fact "payers". If you were designing economic experience ever fucked it could be. And you can see the results.
Bill
Steve H. 'S for your day at the mercy contained all the usual and supplements. One point was "SKIN TIP MARKER SET RULE" for $ 3. Marker This is probably reusable, which marked the spot on the back of Steve H. Hence the incision was happening. Lowest Six lines had "O CORREA TABLE IN 8X27" for $ 31. This strap is used to keep Steve H. on the operating table. Directly below was "HOT TOP BLNKT BDY 42268" for $ 32. This cover is used to keep patients warm surgery. It is, of course, reusable and newly available on eBay for $ 13. Four lines down there "DRESS ULTRA XLG SURG 95121" for $ 39, which is the surgeon wore the dress. Thirty of them can be purchased online for $ 180. Neither Medicare nor large insurance company would pay a separate straps or hospital surgical gown, so that everything is supposed to come with the facility fee paid to the hospital, which in this case was $ 6,289 .



Or how about this:



His bill - which included not only charge $ 13,702 for aggressive marked Rituxan drug against cancer, but also the usual range of costs for basic ChargeMaster as generic Tylenol, blood tests and supplies simple - there was no element found in another bill dealing: MD Anderson charging $ 7 for each This is a small square of cotton used to apply the alcohol to an "alcohol swab." injection. Box 200 can be purchased online for $ 1.91.
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