Quote:
Originally Posted by davidmash
I don't see it as a discount. I thinks the actual notice of services rendered. The higher price is just some made up BS that they use to soak people who have no heth care. It's obscene and should be illegal.
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I've worked in healthcare finance my entire career (on the hospital side) and the way things are billed is a direct function of how they are paid. If we need to get a dollar out of an insurer then we need to bill more than that. The methodology for getting paid is needlessly but incredibly complex and requires high administrative costs. Hospitals in general are a very low margin business during good years, 2-5%, and money losers in bad years like the last three years. Medicare, Medicaid and cash (no insurance and almost always written off as charity care) patients all reimburse less than our costs ( medicare is sometimes close to breakeven). Commercial insurers reimburse much better. There are some for profit places like HCA that make more but they have a very different business model than your community hospital.