The staggering cost of second-rate healthcare

I was in hospital a few years ago and received Lovenox injections (actually, had to give them to myself). Each injection, it turned out (2 times daily), would be added to my bill at $400. Each.

When I was discharged, they sent me home with a box of 10 syringes at the same cost. Turns out I didn’t need them all so the hospital said to bring back the remainder and they’d take them off my bill. However, for each needle I returned they only took off $32.50. Why? Because that’s what the hospital payed for them in the first place.

Of course, in the end, the insurance companies usually pay only a discounted price, so the hospital’s profit drops from staggering to just breathtaking.

A while back I spent a couple of years working at a large hospital, writing SQL for their finance department. If anyone is concerned that healthcare cost reforms might impovrish our medical system…you needn’t. American medicine swim very much in the deep end of the money pool.