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A comment on Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k alternative. Parent comment

Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by robotrout on Thursday April 12, 2018 @02:20PM (#16823530)
Yes. I believe the problem is that they negotiate the prices with the insurance companies. They have to start high, so they can negotiate down. They actually do have a price list, that you can sometimes bully them into giving you, which are the prices that they submit to begin negotiations with the insurance companies. But, as you can imagine, those prices on that list are crazy high, as they are intended to be negotiated down, not actually paid.
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Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by jaggederest on Thursday April 12, 2018 @03:28PM (#16824129)
Insurance contracts also often include "most favored nation" provisions or equivalent, where any discount you give other people must also be given to the insurance company.

This is also why commercial/retail space will generally negotiate on almost anything but the rent per square foot, since if they lower that, all the other tenants will immediately demand lower rent.

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Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by dclowd9901 on Friday April 13, 2018 @03:20PM (#16833119)
So, if I understand you correctly, every time someone visits a health care provider under insurance, they have to perform the billing like they're buying a house or car?

No fucking wonder health care costs a goddamn fortune.

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Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by _jal on Saturday April 14, 2018 @10:05AM (#16837356)
No, that's wrong. It is far worse than that.

There's an entire industry of entities involved with medical pricing. One of the players in one of the larger niches, a Pharmacy Benefits Manager[1], recently bought an insurer[2]. Manipulating, negotiating and offering various financial and marketing products (it gets really blurry) around medical pricing is huge business.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacy_benefit_management

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/business/dealbook/cvs-is-...

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