The outrageous prices in an ER are due to our governments laws and how hospitals choose to cope with the resultant distortion of the market place. ERs are required to take care of all patients regardless of the ability to pay. The costs to the hospital of unreimbursed care must be derived from others. There are commercially insured patients and self-insured patients. The former are able to negotiate the payments for ER care for their clients. The latter do not have a similar opportunity. Therefor, the hospital puts the burden of the cost overrun resulting from the law on the self-insured patient. As more and more of the patients have commercial insurance or a health plan, this burdened is increasingly leveraged on these self-insured patients in an unconscionable way. Since government is the source of this distortion, it ought to require equity in the consequences. This cost overrun from underpayment of mandated ER patients should be considered like the costs of electricity and borne, also, by the negotiated patients. blogs.wsj/experts/2014/11/10/the-high-price-of-being-an-uninformed-patient/
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 21:08:18 +0000
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