[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.