WASHINGTON POST: …The researchers said other consumers who could face those high charges are patients whose hospitals are not in their insurance company’s preferred network of providers, patients using workers’ compensation and those covered by automobile insurance policies.
Carepoint Health-Bayonne Medical Center in Bayonne, N.J., for example, also charges rates 12.6 times the actual cost of patient care. But state law limits the maximum that hospitals can charge uninsured patients to 115 percent, a spokesman said.
By comparison, the researchers said, a typical U.S. hospital charges 3.4 times the cost of patient care… (more)
EDITOR: Seven years ago, NewsLanc’s Doug McVay exposed over charging of non-insured patients at Lancaster General in a series of articles that predated by years recent revelations of such practices. Of course LGH unfair charges were comparatively modest, perhaps 50% to 100%, compared to what we can infer from today’s revelations.
Joseph Kennedy, the father of JFK, reportedly said “All businessmen are ‘sons of bitches.” We don’t ascribe to that theory, but we do think that the health care industry has its fair share.
LGH billed my insurance $11,600 for a routine outpatient procedure. I asked for and received an itemized bill with CPT codes and found out that Medicare would have only allowed $1,800 for the same exact procedure. I don’t know what the actual cost of the procedure was, I’m assuming it was pretty close to what Medicare allows. Even with my insurance and their contracted rate with LGH, the bill was still almost 5 1/2 times the assumed cost. I hope a state law can be passed to limit the max hospitals in PA can charge over the Medicare allowance.