[jurassic]

I hope this reaches hospitals and patients soon. I recently had to pay ~$1k for a transvaginal ultrasound at Stanford Hospital. That is what I paid AFTER insurance, I think the hospital billed the insurance company another $5k or so. Absolute highway robbery, and prohibitive for many people in need of these assessments.

[icebraining]

I don't think the price of the equipment is very relevant. The same procedure (using a probe) costs €100 in a private hospital in my EU country.

[21]

> A pelvic ultrasound typically is covered by health insurance when ordered by a doctor for diagnosis of a problem. For patients covered by health insurance, out-of-pocket costs typically consist of a copay of $10-$50 or more, or coinsurance of 10%-50% or more.

> For patients not covered by health insurance, the cost of a pelvic ultrasound typically varies by provider and geographic region. The typical cost range is $250-$1,100, with a national average cost of $525, according to NewChoiceHealth.com[1] . For example, Concierge Medicine[2] in California charges $275 for a pelvic ultrasound

https://health.costhelper.com/pelvic-ultrasounds.html

[zaroth]

> ... Stanford Hospital ...

The times I’ve used them, the original bill was so outrageous I fumed for days.

Insurance paid ~$15K and they billed me for my entire OOP max for the year ($7,500) for a service that cost about $400 tops to provide.

Contested the bill and they do a medical review of the coding. They had billed as “intensive care” the administration of a single shot and a standard blood count.

They actually came back and claimed the coding was correct! Kept fighting it for about 6 months and they ended up dropping the entire thing at no cost. But they still got to keep the insurance payout.

Just another form of price gouging / variable pricing which should be illegal.

[21]

I was pointing out that grandparent didn't shop around. Convenience always has a cost.

And in US, it's always worth asking for the uninsured price too. When you don't use your insurance, the medical providers compete against themselves and you get market price. Of course, insurance tries very hard to prevent you from bypassing them.

[zaroth]

Completely agree with you! At the same time, my personal experience is that Stanford Hosptal billing is outright fraudulent.

And they appear to know it, so don’t treat the bill as some final price, it’s actually just the first round offer to take advantage of people who don’t have the time or inclination to fight it.

[21]

It seems you are right. Must be one of those bay area perks :)

> Stanford Hospital and Clinics in Palo Alto and Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento are two of the most profitable U.S. hospitals, yet both hospitals carry the “nonprofit” designation, according to a new study.

> The most profitable hospitals had the highest patient care markup rate, the authors found.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/05/03/nonprofit-stanf...

[jurassic]

Agreed. I would have shopped around if I knew this was going to be a major expense. My gyno referred me for this to follow up some questions after my annual exam and he was very nonchalant about it. I had never had an ultrasound, but I thought it seemed like a no-big-deal kind of thing on the level of a dental x-ray, especially since I have pretty good insurance, and that casualness was matched by the doctor's attitude. Nobody showed me a bill or price until I was waiting with a full bladder, ready to be scanned.

[Keyframe]

My wife did a full fetal ultrasound on a latest Samsung machine (they're awesome, btw), with consultation - total cost around 100 euros. Fully private w/o insurance. We could've gone via insurance, and then it would've been absolutely free (well, included with work insurance) but machine used with them doesn't offer as high resolution or have as many capabilities (volumetric reconstruction and other imaging wonders).

This is in Croatia, so what gives? Pay scale for doctors are around 4x as much at Stanford Hospital, and machines cost about the same, Croatia also has a higher tax, but bay area has higher costs. ~60x higher costs? I don't think so, nor do I remember it so. I don't remember Palo Alto having any better basic medical services than here in Croatia either. Was that the price for ultrasound alone? Sounds outrageous.

[ysleepy]

In germany medial procedures are priced in a catalog with factors as wiggle room depending on the case, an ultrasound (GOÄ 410) is around 15€ and there is a trans-cavital added charge (GOÄ 403) of around 15€.

[madengr]

My wife had one of those “fun scans” when pregnant. That cost $150, lasted 45 minutes, and the machine (color 3D) was way more advanced than the diagnostic machine. The that was not a rip off.

Call it a medical procedure, and run it through a radiologist, and the cost shoots up 10x minimum. So where is all the money going?