IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

Re:IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients by Slansitartop on Thursday February 22, 2018 @10:42AM (#16438274)

Hospitals also insanely overcharge for IVs. A few years ago I was in the hospital, and I knew I could keep down oral re-hydration solution. The hospital put me on a saline IV anyway. When I got the bill, the IV line item was $2000! Insurance discounts brought that down to $200. I paid all that for a couple dollars of salt water I didn't need.

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Re:IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients by moftz on Thursday February 22, 2018 @12:06PM (#16439104)

Grainger sells 1L bottles of saline for $12.15. Bags are about the same price elsewhere on the internet. One thing I'm wondering is if the $200 (or $2000) also includes the labor to set it up and the consumables that go along with the IV.

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Re:IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients by gasgasgas on Thursday February 22, 2018 @11:23AM (#16438684)

The charges are inflated because of insurance. The actual paid amount is less.

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Re:IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients by Slansitartop on Thursday February 22, 2018 @11:34AM (#16438785)

The actual paid amount was $200, which is still excessive, especially for something I didn't really need.

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Re:IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients by LeifCarrotson on Thursday February 22, 2018 @11:49AM (#16438946)

Well, that's the amount you paid. Some fraction of the insurance premiums which you and your employer paid also went to the hospital for that IV.

I wonder how much. Obviously not $2000, that's absurd. But maybe $200. Or $2. Or maybe the insurance company gets paid $20 by the hospital so they get to make $180 off of you for the IV.

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Re:IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients by Slansitartop on Thursday February 22, 2018 @12:01PM (#16439050)

I'm on an HSA. The hospital would have gotten nothing from the insurer, and I would have had to pay the whole bill, if I hadn't hit my deductible. If I'd just been to the ER and not been admitted, I would have probably had to pay for it all.

I have it on good authority that saline IV bags are dirt cheap. The hospital used a machine to control the delivery rate, but that cost should have been amortized over hundreds or thousands of patients. The nursing labor involved was negligible, not more than a half-hour for the whole stay.

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