Do not draw conclusions from this specific case because Kaiser in particular is very, very different.

You may be able to find similarly insane examples at other hospitals, but Kaiser is vertically integrated: generally Kaiser doctors send Kaiser-insured patients to Kaiser hospitals.

I am not sure how they reach their measure of a "price" here but it is entirely possible it's unusual and or different.

Again you can probably find something similar at non-Kaiser hospitals (Just for fun... check the Sutter system in NorCal - it's extremely expensive), but Kaiser is not the reason you should think this is insane.

For a contrast [1] from the other side of the pond, you could get by on about $3k USD (most British people have no idea about this! [2]):

> RESULTS

> Fifty laparoscopic appendicectomies were performed. Median operative time was 60 min. The median total operative cost of laparoscopic appendicectomy was £906. Median equipment cost for laparoscopically completed cases was £254. Median total in-patient cost was £1617 (range, £880–£3360). This compared with a mean re-imbursement of £1981 representing a [hospital] cost benefit of £233 per case (P = 0.0009).

> CONCLUSIONS

> Despite a liberal use of disposable equipment, laparoscopic appendicectomy can still be performed within the confines of the national tariffs. There is a considerable variation in the cost of this procedure, and it may be possible to reduce costs by more stringent use of disposable equipment and standardising recovery protocols.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2966171/ [2] https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2016/feb/...

What the ..... My wife paid non evasive extraction of appendix 600 euros in a private hospital (and was an emergency) in East EU and is considered luxury by some. It's free in public hospitals.

You guys are swimming in cash.

Too bad it is an emergency condition, otherwise people could just fly to TN for the same procedure...

I used to think that, but my wife had one last year and she only got her surgery almost 2 months after the diagnosis. She was on antibiotic the whole time to reduce and control the infection. Apparently it's the new way to deal with it, since it makes the surgery much easier to perform, instead of when the patient is in pain.

Anecdote aside, your point stands. Shopping, across state lines for surgery is ridiculous.

What does pricing at Kaiser even mean? When I last looked at them, every plan had a $0 deductible and even surgery just had a single copay. Is that the price for someone out of network who goes there in an emergency?

Yeah that's a generally interesting one because Kaiser's pricing is inflated assuming that all their patient's also have Kaiser insurance. But appendectomies do range quite a bit.