Hospital pricing in South Florida confuses: Bus and Medical Billing and Coding Jobs

Hospital pricing in South Florida confuses

Dollar, 63, says he recently lost his job as a construction superintendent, part of a move in which his employer cut three older men who were costing the small firm a lot in health insurance. He figures the healthcare benefit worked out to 40 percent of his salary.

Hospital pricing in South Florida confuses and dismays: JOHN DORSCHNER

When Robert Dollar entered Baptist Hospital, he knew precautions had to be taken, because he would be slightly radioactive from taking a tablet intended to rid himself of any remaining cancer cells after having his thyroid removed.

That’s why a hospital worker wrapped the light switches, telephone receiver, door handles and a portion of the floor with plastic sheeting. Charge for the wrapping: $2,518. Total bill for his 45-hour stay: $23,396.30.

Irate when he saw the bill, Dollar wrote to the hospital: “As our nation struggles to understand why it pays almost twice as much per capita for medical care with more failed treatment outcomes — $6,700 per patient here versus $3,400 in the Netherlands… the gluttony of a hospital charging $23,396.30… is terribly wrong.”

Dollar was echoing what many policy experts are saying during the present debate about healthcare reform: Costs must be brought down to help cover the uninsured. That’s particularly true in South Florida, where healthcare spending is far higher than in most other areas of the country.

Certainly, Dollar is not alone in his anger.

In Pembroke Pines, Joey Whitt, 15, sprained an ankle and had magnetic resonance imaging at Memorial West. Total cost: $4,906.20, including a family co-pay of $981.24.

In Hollywood, Robert Feibusch went to Memorial Regional to have a battery replaced in his defibrillator. He stayed eight hours. Total bill: $46,584.30. Astounded, Feibusch fired off a letter to President Barack Obama: “Isn’t this a little stupid?”

In fact, hospital administrators acknowledge the pricing system is out of whack. Dollar was “trying to make logic out of something that’s not logical,” says Karen Godfrey, a Baptist Health South Florida vice president. She admits that “it’s very difficult to make sense” of hospital bills.

“From the broader perspective, this is all a matter of cost-shifting,” says Matt Muhart, chief financial officer of Memorial Healthcare System. “When you look at the numbers of uninsured and the lower-paying government insurance, you have to make up the money somewhere to keep your doors open.” That’s why Memorial, Baptist and other hospitals have to bulk up the charges for those who have private insurance.

All three patients who contacted The Miami Herald have insurance that paid most of their charges, but all are concerned about the larger issue of how high healthcare costs are damaging the American economy.

THREE MEN’S TALES

Dollar entered Baptist about 5 p.m. on a Tuesday and was given a capsule containing 100 milliliters of radioactive I-131 ($12,400), an anti-nausea medication ($79) and 100 milligrams of ducosate sodium, a stool softener (30 cents).

For various staff members handling the radioactive dosage and delivering it to his room, Baptist billed three charges: $1,057, $1,175 and $3,061. The room rate was $1,553 a day.

Because he was radioactive, Dollar says no one entered his room. A tray was left at the door that he fetched himself. A technician occasionally appeared in the doorway and used a gadget to measure his radioactivity. At 2 p.m. Thursday, his radioactivity level had dropped and he was allowed to go home.

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Hospital pricing in South Florida confuses

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