[lannisterstark]

Curious question, if the amount 'billed' to your insurance was as you say, 25000, and if a patient went there and they were told without insurance they'd get charged say, $300 (slightly higher than with-insurance price), does it matter to that end user, or the users with insurance that the insurance is being charged $25 grand?

Ultimately the end user is paying $250/300. Eg, my counselor example.

[brewdad]

The problem comes when insurance denies the claim for whatever reason. Now, the provider is going to try to bill you the $25,000. It's up to you to either get your insurance to cover the procedure properly or to negotiate it back down to something close to the $300 price. They won't just offer it to you after processing through insurance.

[tehwebguy]

Exactly, they don’t wanna pay it either. Plus, the negotiated rates have nothing to do with whether or not a patient bill will be “approved”.

[BHSPitMonkey]

The inflated procedure costs help shape the premiums we all pay for (either directly, or through our employers, or though the overhead costs of business with employees where we shop and do business). It's just a sneaky way to extract as much value from society as they can get away with.