IF she had paid cash she could have saved almost $1300.

**no1_vern** · May 31st, 2012, 07:32 AM

Medical charges:$6,707 With Med Ins:$2,336 The cash price? - $1,054 Many hospitals, doctors offer cash discount for medical bills - latimes.com

By Chad Terhune

May 27, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
A Long Beach hospital charged Jo Ann Snyder $6,707 for a CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis after colon surgery. But because she had health insurance with Blue Shield of California, her share was much less: $2,336.

Then Snyder tripped across one of the little-known secrets of healthcare: If she hadn't used her insurance, her bill would have been even lower, just $1,054.

Now, isn't that something? Also:

The difference in price can be stunning. Los Alamitos Medical Center, for instance, lists a CT scan of the abdomen on a state website for $4,423. Blue Shield says its negotiated rate at the hospital is about $2,400.

When The Times called for a cash price, the hospital said it was $250.

**Epidemic** · May 31st, 2012, 08:14 AM

Ahhh insurance!

I have stumbled on this only though little things.

like my copay on a drug is 20 bucks. Even if the drug is less than 20 dollars normally.

I wonder how much of our medical costs are like this.

Insurance is supposed to negotiate a bulk discount. At least that I would think was the theory.

Los Alamitos Medical . Cash price $250, Insurred $2400, charged $4,423. So I pay for insurance, I have the false sense that the price I am getting is better than cash. So on my high deductible insurance gets me raped. Effectively I would pay 2,150 dollars above the cost of the proceedure for insurance paperwork?

BAhhhhhhh!

**Epidemic** · May 31st, 2012, 08:28 AM

Ahhh now it makes complete sense

Hospital executives say they don't like to charge insured patients more, but say that's a result of the country's broken health-care system.

At Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where Snyder got her CT scan, the hospital's chief financial officer said insured patients pay more to subsidize uncompensated care.

The cash discount is below the cost of the proceedure. It is the government dabbling in health care. Effectively the person who pays cash up front who has insurance is stealing the service

I hope to be the next thief to take advantage of this. If enough people learn about this and take advantage of it and we could probably completely break the system. Insurance rates would skyrocket to pay for ever increasing cost of proceedures for the insurred.

**tony_j15** · May 31st, 2012, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by Epidemic

The cash discount is below the cost of the proceedure. It is the government dabbling in health care. Effectively the person who pays cash up front who has insurance is stealing the service

Actually, it is the lack of "government dabbling" that causes this problem. Your options are either to deny health care services (including emergency services) to people without the ability to pay, stay with the current system (which unequally and unfairly subsidizes), or switch to a nationalized service. The PPACA was a step in the right direction in this regard, because it moves people off the free cart and forces everyone to pay to play.

**sharder8** · May 31st, 2012, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by tony_j15

Actually, it is the lack of "government dabbling" that causes this problem. Your options are either to deny health care services (including emergency services) to people without the ability to pay, stay with the current system (which unequally and unfairly subsidizes), or switch to a nationalized service. The PPACA was a step in the right direction in this regard, because it moves people off the free cart and forces everyone to pay to play.

Yeah right . . . until you get deemed "un-insurable".

But hey, now we can quadruple the company medical plan costs to add the new "un-insurable" employee. Let us not forget . . . it's an all or none proposition, all your employee's are covered, or none of them are covered.

(I'm covered by the VA, but that didn't matter to the insurance companies.)

I'm tired of all the medical insurance BS . . .

And Government intervention isn't going to make it any better or cheaper.

Harder

**Theophylact** · May 31st, 2012, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by sharder8

Yeah right . . . until you get deemed "un-insurable".

That's why the ACA ("Obamacare") abolished "uninsurable", and that's why it required everyone, including the young and healthy, to take out insurance or pay a penalty -- the "mandate". Too bad it didn't include some of the other provisions you'd like, such as negotiating drug prices and procedure prices. Guess who prevented that?