This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Beam Me Up, Health Care Costs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
- Beam Me Up
- Discussion
- From the Trenches
- FYI
- Health Alert
- 2008 Election
- African AIDS
- Babies
- Bad Studies
- Book Reviews
- Bush Health Plan
- Diabetics
- Health Care Costs
- Health Reform
- HSAs
- International
- LAZIK Surgery
- Malpractice
- Media Advisory
- Medicaid
- Medical Economics
- Medical Tourism
- Mental Health
- Minimum Wage
- Portability
- RAND Studies
- Safety
- Scary Forecasts
- SCHIP
- Seniors/Medicare
- Socialized Medicine
- Supply Side
- Telemedicine
- Transparency
- Uninsured
- Vet Care
- Vision Thing
- Workers Comp
- Hits & Misses
- Plans
- Updates
Categories
Contributors
- Ron Bachman
- Michael Bond
- Jim Frogue
- John Goodman
- Linda Gorman
- Robert Graboyes
- Devon Herrick
- Regina Herzlinger
- June O'Neill
- Roy Ramthun
- Greg Scandlen
Recent Posts
- Spending Other People’s Money
- Doctor Shortages
- Policies that Fail
- For Pete Sake
- Do Political Parties Matter?
- Pay for Performance (P4P): It Doesn’t Work
- Designing Health Insurance
- 412
- Doctors Vindicated
- Krugman Over the Top
Home Pages
Apr 30, 2008
A woman diagnosed with leukemia is sent to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, according to a Wall Street Journal story:
- She is told she can have an appointment only if she brings a certified check for $45,000.
- But the $45,000 covers only lab tests. For an admission for actual treatment, the hospital demands $60,000 more.
- A nurse refuses to change the chemotherapy bag in her pump until her husband makes another payment.
- While she is sitting on an exam table awaiting a doctor, a hospital administrator argues with her about money.
- She is charged $360 for blood-tests most insurers pay $20 or less for; $120 for saline pouches that cost less than $2 retail; and $314 for a penis clamp (to control incontinence), although she has no penis.
Since M.D. Anderson is nonprofit, it pays no taxes. It has a $1.88 billion endowment and netted $310 million in income (profit) last year. Contributions are tax deductible.
Leave a Reply
