re: Everyone should request an itemized hospital bill, it is really interesting

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insurance doesn't pay this amount though.

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What you don't see is the huge up front lump sum the insurance companies pay the hospitals and doctors to get the "discount."

Also, some hospitals are now charging patients a "facility" fee. This is not covered by insurance and can be hundreds of dollars just for using the facility.

Consumer Reports facility fee article

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$4.61 per minute of anesthesia.

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Doesn’t seem that unreasonable when minimum wage is $15/hr.

For 51 minutes of anesthesia, at that billing rate (which tells me what kind of insurance we are looking at) the anesthesia group probably collected about $500 for your case because each case has a set of base units

At the cost of paying an anesthesiologist and a nurse anesthetist to do the procedure, you’re looking at a gross revenue for anesthesia services for your procedure that the anesthesia company made at or around $0 net revenue.

Now, if we are talking South Carolina and the anesthesia care model was a certain type, the anesthesia company collected at least 35% less than that.

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Anesthesia is also charged by the minute. $4.61 per minute of anesthesia.

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Anesthesia is actually billed in 15 minute increments called a base unit. That is the cost for the providers, not the medication.

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OR billed by the minute. $276.77 per minute for 51 minutes.

Anesthesia is also charged by the minute. $4.61 per minute of anesthesia.

Recovery room is at least charged by 15 minute intervals. $424 per 15 minutes of use

$1,648.71 for the staples

$42,000 billed to insurance for an outpatient lap appendectomy, not including the surgeon bill which is separate.

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On average medical bills are paid 25 cents on the $, when commercial insurance is the payer source. That's right, if a $100 bill is submitted only $25 will be paid.

I know this firsthand. I owned a medical clinic. Oh yeah, Obama lied. We lost half our patients when Obamacare went active. My personal insurance premium went from $220 per month to $410 the first day of O-care.

Now, work comp pays much higher than commercial. Also PI and auto medical coverage pay close "truth in billing."

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That's about as much as one round of rabies immunoglobulin and 4 rounds of the vaccine Healthcare is a criminal enterprise.

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I got attacked by a confirmed rabid bat (I killed it after it had a few flying runs at me). Bill was about the same.

List price in medical bills is BS.

It did. For the usual useless. We get to pay higher premiums and more for managed care. It certainly isn’t medical care. Managed plans never should have been allowed. There was nothing wrong with insurance as it was when medial car existed.

And Medicare is actually decreasing payments to providers this year. Some doctors are even starting to refuse accepting Medicare.

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from my personal experience dealing with doctors/hospitals (very anecdotal, not a doctor or work in healthcare) is they have to do something pretty horrible to get found guilty of malpractice. They also have a team of lawyers ready to defend them.

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True but the legal defense costs crazy money and insurance covers it