I happened to look at an explanation of benefits "EOB" after going to the ER several years ago for an obstructed kidney caused by a Kideney stone. The ER charged something like 18 dollars for th demi and 22 dollars fo the Visterill but the negaotiated price on the EOB for the Demi was $1.22 and the Hydroxine was 80 cents. This is obviously whole sale price but not a loss.
The next time you think of a car salesman as ths scum of the earth that is trying to rip you off by maintaing a 20% gross margin of profit just remeber the ER bill and what they would charge a cash customer. 20 times the actual cost of the medication used. The biggest rip offs and scams are not the salesman in furniture stores and car lots trying to maintain a minimal margin of profit to stay in buisness and think about the time You were charged 8 bucks for a tylenol or 22 bucks for a 2 dollar shot of demi.
The thing that caused me to change PM docs several ywars ago after fighting my insurance to aprove an out of network doc every month was when I had to pay 280 dollars for an ofice visit with a physiatirist where 4 trigger point injectioins were given. 2 bucks worth of meds used, 20 minutes of the docs time and 280 bucks out a disabled person pocket for a miniscule amount of relief. That was the straw that broke the camels back and led me to a full service "in network" clinic that can do anything from full anesthesia for interventional procedures and medication infusions on site to a simple med check, TP injection or eval. In network those same TP injections cost me a 20 buck copay and the other 40 is paid by the insurance. What happened to 280 bucks for the same services from a less qualified and less educated doc to perform the same service. The needle guy at the clinic is an anesthesiologist that spent twice as much time learning his speicalty and pays 5 times the mal practice rates than a physical med doc.
I guess someone has to make up for the write offs docs agree too when they have acepted 1.2 mil up front to except HMO patients whether they ever see them or not but agree to the HMO fee schedule should their services ever be needed by a member of that HMO. So charge the folks without insurance who can least affrd it.
Another classic was when MY NS was asked to give a 15 minute deposition for MY SSD Apeal. He wanted his surgical rate, $1500 a half hour to sit on the phone and give a depo to my attorney. The moral is, be nice to your car salesman, likely he's not working off the same profit margin or lieing to you anywhere near the magnitude of what most health care profesionals do that provide life saving neccessities and charge you 10-20 times the actual cost of a med, and do it with a smile as if they are doing you a favor.
Interesting that a compounding pharmacy would be so much less than what a doc charges for an 80 cent ampule of demi.
Have a good day, Dave
Linear Mode
