[cwhiz]

Well that is actually a pretty tough one. How are they supposed to predict how long the delivery will take or whether the mother will need a c-section? Even if the hospital were able to perfectly predict all of the procedures and line items they still would not be able to tell you what you, the individual, would ultimately pay. Even if they know your insurance information they still would not know how close you are to hitting your deductible or annual out of pocket max. There are a million different things that eventually go into figure out what the end "customer" will actually end up paying.

And just because they "billed" your insurance $85k doesn't mean they were actually paid $85. Billable vs allowable and all that mess.

However, if you went into the hospital and asked for the cash cost of a routine procedure they very likely would be able to give you a close approximation to what you would end up paying.

[ta1234567890]

> How are they supposed to predict how long the delivery will take or whether the mother will need a c-section?

In their case it was a scheduled c-section. In any case they can at the least give you a range: min-max.

Additionally, hospitals keep very accurate track of their c-section rates, so even if they are not able to predict yours in particular, they can definitely tell you what your odds are ahead of time.

And, there are other countries and healthcare systems in which they internally take care of the stats/metrics so that they make a decent amount while you pay a reasonable amount that they tell you before you choose to get the procedure.

The hospital doesn't tell you the estimate of anything because they are afraid of the liability (or maybe just accountability).

It's just lazy or maybe too convenient, to say it can't be done. I mean if already health insurance companies can give you a fixed monthly amount to pay, then they know very well how much it's going to cost them, why not tell us?

[dragonwriter]

> And, there are other countries and healthcare systems in which they internally take care of the stats/metrics so that they make a decent amount while you pay a reasonable amount that they tell you before you choose to get the procedure.

That's a difference in the financing system, which hospitals have about as much say in as consumers do.

The insurance companies (including government payers like Medicaid and Medicare) don't just control reimbursement, they control what providers can bill to customers, too. And that includes (by usual and customary charge rules) influencing what they can and need to charge to customers that aren't even being reimbursed by the payer in question.