Outrageous Hospital Charges Exposed
The issue of tort reform has been embraced by many health care reform opponents as being necessary to bring down medical costs in the United States. This mantra is constantly repeated even though all unbiased studies show that the cost of medical malpractice is only a small fraction of the health care costs in the United States and that capping damages to severely injured people does little, if anything, to lower insurance costs for doctors or stop inflation of medical costs. Yet, the proponents of this so called tort reform constantly repeat this falsehood even though over 98,000 innocent people die every year in this country alone due to medical errors.
This week CNN covered a story that everyone concerned about high medical costs should view. Their reporters uncovered massive overbillings by hospitals. These outrageous billings included $1,000 for a common toothbrush. You can go to your pharmacy and buy 100 Tylenol pills for $10, yet one hospital billed $140 for a single pill. An alcohol prep pad, a piece of gauze, was billed at $44.00 by a hospital when the retail cost at a pharmacy is 23 cents. In another example a hospital billed an emergency room patient for 41 bags of IV fluid during a 2 hour visit. This of course is impossible.
Our own lawyers can tell similar stories. We had one client who was severely injured in an automobile accident and pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. Yet, when reviewing the bill we discovered a $25 dollar charge for a “mouthcare kit” which consisted of a plastic cup, a toothbrush, and mouthwash. Also charged for this patient who was dead upon arrival was $45 for a pillow.
These are just a few of the overbillings we have seen. In fact, CNN reported that health insurance companies rarely review hospital bills unless they are in excess of $100,00.00.
If the proponents of tort reform really want to lower healthcare costs these outrageous charges might be a good place to start.
