Hospital Monopolies Ruin MRI Bill as Sutter Gets Price It Wants

[no_hypocrisy]

After Mark Logsdon tore a ligament in his knee skiing at Lake Tahoe in March, he returned home to suburban Sacramento and had an MRI scan at Sutter Davis Hospital.

Sutter’s price for the knee scan was $1,271, payable by Logsdon and his insurer. Exactly the same MRI at one of the local imaging centers owned by Radiological Associates of Sacramento would have cost $696 -- 45 percent less.

It turns out that Logsdon didn’t know something that his insurance company does: Sutter Health Co., the nonprofit that owns Sutter Davis, has market power that commands prices 40 to 70 percent higher than its rivals per typical procedure -- and pacts with insurers that keep those prices secret.

Sutter can charge these prices because it has acquired more than a third of the market in the San Francisco-to-Sacramento region through more than 20 hospital takeovers in the last 30 years, according to executives of Aetna Inc., Health Net Inc. and Blue Shield of California, who asked not to be named because their agreements with Sutter ban disclosure of prices.




http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-20/hospital-monopolies-ruin-mri-bill-as-sutter-gets-price-it-wants.html

[ejpoeta]

1. they can charge it because the patient doesn't know they are charging more than others.

that is bullshit. could you imagine going to a store and not being able to find out what the competitors price is!!!

[MattBaggins]

3. Countdown till the so called libertards on DU

come rushing in to tell you that someone in excruciating pain from a torn ligament should have gone to all the hospitals in a 500 mile radius and shopped around more.

[ejpoeta]

4. we are talking about a guy who went HOME and then had the MRI. so i don't think he was in

such excruciating pain that he couldn't have CHOSEN to go to another place. it would be one thing if he were in some kind of dire need here like an accident victim who ends up in the hospital and needing an MRI. he could have had a choice if he had known the cost at one place vs another.

[MattBaggins]

6. If he had contacted them directly they wouldn't have told him the price?

Was he only allowed to ask his insurance company where to go?

[Selatius]

8. Most insurance won't cover you "out-of-area." You can only go to specific hospitals with most plans.

If you are traveling somewhere and get hurt, you are most likely out of network anyway, so you're going to eat the full price of it unless your insurance company says otherwise. That's one aspect of the health care debate that's been woefully under-discussed.

[MattBaggins]

2. Sounds like anti-trust to me

[msongs]

5. medical facilities need to post their procedure prices online for all to read nt

[spinbaby]

9. Hear, hear!

And they shouldn't be allowed to charge the uninsured more than they charge the insurance companies.

[Selatius]

7. One, but not the only way, to bring down health care inflation: MONOPOLY SMASHING.

Bring out the fucking sledge hammer. It's got "Sherman/Clayton Anti-Trust" scrolled onto the steel.