Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

Re:Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at ... by rdtsc on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @11:28PM (#18289478)

Ultrasound is a quick and relatively simple procedure. They could get a few in the ER and a few technicians on staff. Then doctors are encouraged to say bloodwork is off let's do an ultrasound and there you have it - $4k / 25 minutes. Bill the insurance and keep raking in the money.

Normally I'd say that's far fetched but after having relatives advised to get unnecessary surgery I wouldn't be surprised.

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Re:Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at ... by HeadsUpHigh on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @12:55PM (#18294165)

I'm not sure what you mean by the doctors being encouraged but unless the doctor ordering the U/S is getting a cut then there is no direct incentive. But I don't know how your system works so I might be wrong.

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Re:Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at ... by citrablue on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @04:55PM (#18296296)

In some emergency departments, the physicians participate in profit sharing. I know of a few EDs where they add up all the revenue, subtract all the costs, and divide the rest into each doctor's paycheck based on how much that doctor billed each month.

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Re:Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at ... by mrguyorama on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @01:41PM (#18294636)

Do you not understand that doctors have levels of management above them? Their incentive could be "Boss wants me to encourage them for X reasons"

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