Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k alternative

Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by realbarack on Thursday April 12, 2018 @11:31PM (#16826950)

Re: your last paragraph: yes, that is how it works. That $1000 rate is known as the "chargemaster" rate and it's absurdly, incredibly inflated. A hospital maintains a chargemaster list, which is how they bill uninsured patients. Insurers negotiate rates which are a fraction of this chargemaster rate. The chargemaster rates are also not public, I believe.

So, unintuitively, uninsured people (at least the ones who can pay their bills) are great for care provider revenue.

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Re:Non-profit’s $300 hepatitis C cure as effective as $84k a... by npongratz on Friday April 13, 2018 @10:47AM (#16830451)

Here's where I am further confused, then. If the provider has this list of chargemaster rates (inflated though they may be), and I tell them I'm paying cash, no insurance of any kind involved, shouldn't they be able to tell me at that moment what they will charge me?

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