Paid for by Better Solutions for Healthcare
Research from the California Attorney General shows people in Northern California pay thousands of dollars more for certain hospital procedures than those in the southern part of the state. Hospital care for a heart attack cost around $25,000 in San Francisco, but closer to $15,000 in parts of Los Angeles. A doctor’s visit for a common cold cost $205 in San Francisco, compared to as low as $122 in Los Angeles.
Gallbladder surgery might cost a commercially insured patient $1,418.04 at one hospital or as much as $13,469 for the surgery at another, leaving a price difference of 850%.
The most expensive hospitals charge up to 12 times more than affordable hospitals ask patients to pay for a simple urinalysis. Hospitals also inflated their $1,167.23 median commercial price for a CT scan of the brain by 976% from Medicare’s $108.44 median rate.
A Georgia woman spent seven hours waiting for emergency room staff at Emory Decatur Hospital ER to check out her head injury, and left before receiving any treatment. But the real headache began when the hospital billed her almost $700 for the visit a few weeks later. “I didn’t get my vitals taken, nobody called my name. I wasn’t seen at all.”
In 2021 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia delivered a record $7.7 million pay package the facility’s CEO, despite the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc on the healthcare industry.
Facility charges are increasing at a faster pace than other services, with facility fees increasing four times faster (531%) than professional fees (132%) between 2004 and 2021.
A woman was billed $809 by a UCLA-affiliated clinic for a plastic boot for her broken foot. She found the exact same boot on Amazon for $80. Which is to say, she was being charged a nearly 1,000% markup.
McAlester Regional Health Center tacked on $193 for a room charge, nearly doubling the patient’s original bill for a checkup.
When care was delivered in systems, the prices paid were 12% to 26% higher for physician services and 31% higher for hospital services compared to non-system care.
Wage growth for nurses and pharmacy workers was 1.7% below the average national wage growth following hospital mergers.
Orlando Health and AdventHealth together control 77% of the entire inpatient hospital market in the Orlando metro area.
27% of hospital beds in Washington state were part of a health system in 2007. In 2017, 73% of hospital beds were part of a health system. “This consolidation gives greater market power and the ability to raise prices…”
Two-thirds of hospitals are part of a corporate health care system, and 80% of hospital markets are highly consolidated.
In Orlando, just two giants run the show. Orlando Health and AdventHealth together control 77% of the entire inpatient hospital market in the four-county Orlando metro area, according to Orlando Health’s bond filing. Those two not-for-profit systems also own two-thirds of the pediatric hospital market. Orlando Health and AdventHealth control closer to 90% of inpatient services in a narrower three-county slice of Orlando, according to older filings.
75% of markets are now considered highly consolidated which decreases in patient choice, impedes innovation, erodes quality and raises prices.
“When the price of his P.T. doubled overnight — to nearly $200 for approximately 30 minutes — there was nowhere else to go, because Ballad Health effectively had a monopoly on care in 29 counties of the Appalachian Highlands in northeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, northwestern North Carolina and southeastern Kentucky.”
American families lose $481 every year to high hospital prices if they live in an area with little hospital competition.
$629 bill for a 1-year-old to receive a Band-Aid. A $722.50 charge for every push of medicine through an IV. A $17,850 bill for a single drug test.
Hospital systems charge an average of 86% more than private clinics for cancer drug infusions.
A Chicago hospital charged a patient $38,398 for a single shot of a cancer infusion, for which the hospital paid $260.
A 2021 study found that for every $100 in total spending, nonprofit hospitals provided only $2.30 in charity care, while for-profit hospitals provided $3.80.
Nonprofit hospitals charged commercially insured patients up to 25% more for brain scans with an MRI than for-profit facilities.
Nonprofit and public hospitals charged commercially insured patients up to 25% more for brain scans with an MRI than for-profit facilities, “For-profit hospitals in the study charged a median price of $1,509, while nonprofit and government hospitals charged a median $1,938 and $2,149, respectively. Medicare pays $400 or less for the procedure, depending on the facility type.”
California and Oregon patients who qualify for free care have been charged thousands of dollars and are being harassed by collection agents sent by non-profit hospitals.
A 340B hospital in Chicago charged a patient $38,398 for a single shot of a cancer infusion when it is likely that the hospital only paid $260.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia delivered a record $7.7 million pay package to CEO Madeline Bell in 2021, as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc in the health care industry. Her total pay amounted to more than the nonprofit hospital spent on free and discounted services to financially needy patients, or charity care, over the three previous years combined.
Sherrie Foy’s colon removal surgery led to numerous complications, months in the hospital, and medical bills totaling over $1 million. When Foy couldn’t pay more than $775,000 she owed the UVA Health System, the medical center sued, forcing Foy and her husband to declare bankruptcy and cash in a life insurance policy to pay a bankruptcy lawyer.
When Cheyenne Dantona changed health plans after being diagnosed with blood cancer in college, she was hit with thousands of dollars of medical bills because one of her primary providers was out of network. She enrolled in a medical credit card, only to get stuck paying even more in interest. This debt has made her hesitant to seek care to ensure her cancer remains in remission.
COVID survivor Gregg Garfield spent 64 days in the hospital at the very beginning of the pandemic. “I had everything from kidney failure, I was put on dialysis. I had collapsed lungs,” His total bill? $2.5 million.
A woman was billed $809 by a UCLA-affiliated clinic for a plastic boot for her broken foot. She found the exact same boot on Amazon for $80– a nearly 1,000% markup.
A Georgia woman spent seven hours waiting for emergency room staff at Emory Decatur Hospital ER to check out her head injury, and left before receiving any treatment. But the real headache began when the hospital billed her almost $700 for the visit a few weeks later. “I didn’t get my vitals taken, nobody called my name. I wasn’t seen at all.”
Arielle Harrison’s 9-year-old was scheduled for a telehealth visit with a pediatric specialist at Yale New Haven Health System. She received a notice from the hospital informing her that she would get two bills for the visit: one for the doctor’s services and one for a hospital facility fee, even though she and her son were at home and never set foot in any hospital-affiliated building.
For Emily Boller, it was medical debt from a $5,000 hospital bill for a simple case of pink eye that took four years to pay off.
After being in the hospital for fourteen hours, Jaquins’ partner finally got a bed, another five hours went by before the hospital found him a room. He stayed in the hospital for four days– the treatment was “abhorrent and unconscionable”. “Mission Hospital used to be where everyone would go if they wanted good care”, but that dynamic changed in 2019 when HCA Healthcare bought Mission Health System’s six hospitals in western North Carolina.
Paid for by Better Solutions for Healthcare