Re:The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER...
by bluntfang on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @09:11PM
(#22552489)
I never said it was the only reason. The reason it costs so much is because you aren't paying for the raw material. You're paying for a service. That service happens to be laughably bad and expensive, but that's what you're paying for.
So the argument that the crutch is expensive because an MD handed it to you probably doesn't hold, the clinician files something, probably under a CPT code, and you were billed for that separately.
This depends on the service of course, you may see say a CT scan where the room time & tech etc. are rolled into one item, but the radiologist review is separate. So it isn't just people vs. equipment, etc.