U.S. October PPI Rises 6.5% YoY, Highest in Nearly Four Years

Re:U.S. October PPI Rises 6.5% YoY, Highest in Nearly Four Y... by adrr on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:42PM (#50486985)

Most of hospitals are non profit. If you choose HMO insurance, its will probably be non profit as well like Kaisser. Some of big PPOs are also non profit like blue cross blue shield. Problem seems like over complicated billing and accounts receivables which leads to large administrative staff hospitals have to employee. Lack of medical professionals nurses and doctors which lead to increased salaries.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:U.S. October PPI Rises 6.5% YoY, Highest in Nearly Four Y... by nickff on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:16PM (#50487489)

The largest expense in the medical system is caregiver wages; administrative wages are the 'foreign aid' of the medical system (very unpopular, but not a major cost-driver). Reducing doctors' and nurses' salaries is very unpopular even though the USA pays those two groups much more than any other country in the world (by almost any measure).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:U.S. October PPI Rises 6.5% YoY, Highest in Nearly Four Y... by ericd on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:38PM (#50487833)

[delayed]

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:U.S. October PPI Rises 6.5% YoY, Highest in Nearly Four Y... by laughing_man on Friday November 13, 2026 @02:20PM (#50488412)

The top line bill in US medicine is almost entirely fictitious. Hospitals and insurers built a system to defraud people on percentage plans. If you're on an 80/20 plan, for example, and the bill is $100, in theory you pay $20 and your insurer pays $80.

But what actually happens is you pay $20, the insurer pays $80, and then the hospital has to remit a large block discount back to the insurer at some point (it's either the end of the quarter or year. I can't remember). I haven't looked into this in awhile, but when I did local area hospitals were discounting payments by almost 80%, meaning the insurance company actually pays $16 on that bill and the plan that's supposed to have you paying 20% of the bill actually has you paying 55.6% of what the hospital receives. Like I said, it's fraud. It may not meed the legal definition of fraud, but it's still fraud.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:U.S. October PPI Rises 6.5% YoY, Highest in Nearly Four Y... by adrr on Friday November 13, 2026 @05:12PM (#50490724)

Are you saying the insurance company is not paying the 80% of the negotiated rate? Why would a hospital defraud people when they are non profit entities?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:U.S. October PPI Rises 6.5% YoY, Highest in Nearly Four Y... by tgma on Friday November 13, 2026 @03:51PM (#50489464)

AMA is a literal cartel restricting supply. Most of a doctor's job can be done better by ChatGPT (or a regular individual with a 4 year degree with specialized training for that matter), so it is obvious the licensing and supply is a major issue.

[ Parent | on HN ]