A new study just released by Health Affairs finds that fifty hospital in the U.S. are charging the uninsured more than 10 TIMES the actual cost of patient care. 20 of these hospitals are in Florida.
In a new study released by Health Affairs, co-authors Gerard Anderson and Ge Bai discovered that at least 50 U.S. hospitals have markups approximately ten times their Medicare-allowable costs compared to the national average.
Here's the breakdown:
- Of the 50 hospitals, 49 are for profit.
- 46 are owned by for-profit hospital systems.
- 20 operate in Florida.
- And ONE for-profit hospital system owns HALF of these 50 hospitals.
The Federation of American Hospitals, representing for-profit hospitals, told the Washington Post that the listed hospitals provided nearly $450 million in uncompensated care in 2012 alone. The statements continues that Including these discounts "would have had significant effect on the charge-to-cost ration reported, and therefore the implications of the study's results."
Backtracking much? Check out the full list of hospitals here, courtesy of the Washington Post which lays them out in a fancy map. And tell us below if you've had experiences at any of the above-listed corporations (because that's what they should be called really..."hospitals" just seems misleading at this point).
The co-authors of the study conclude that "federal and state governments may want to consider limitations on the charge-to-cost ratio, some form of all-payer rate setting, or mandated price disclosure to regulate hospital markups." To say the least!
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