From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com (Steven B. Harris )
Subject: Re: Itemized Hospital Bill wanted
Date: 12 Sep 1995
Newsgroups: sci.med

In <433cmt$ju@dingo.cc.uq.oz.au> jonathan@psy.uq.oz.au (Jonathan DWYER)
writes:

>I'm looking for an itemised hospital bill for a health
>study.  I assume that no-one would provide me with a real
>one of their own, so could anyone reading this group
>tell me where I might find a facsimile or reproduction
>in some published source?  I recall seeing one from a
>New York hospital reproduced in a book, published in the
>1970s) about communication and consumer spending, but I
>have just finished a search through internet libraries
>and information systems and came up with zip.  So, does
>anyone know where I can find what I'm looking for?



Just go your local teaching hospital (preferably with a medical
education department so they are used to answering questions from
curious housestaff) and explain to the administrator that you want a
nice long bill for a random ICU patient (say).  They should be able to
provide one with the name and identifying stuff removed during
photocopy, so patient confidence is not violated.   All kinds of
accounting people in hospitals have to see such things, so it's not
exactly Top Secret.  Try it.  I used to ask for bills all the time as a
resident.  Several patients I knew cost more than I'll make in 10
years.  And died.   Essential for perspective.

                                              Steve Harris, M.D.

From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com (Steven B. Harris )
Subject: Re: Itemized Hospital Bill wanted
Date: 13 Sep 1995
Newsgroups: sci.med

In <435aln$213@newsbf02.news.aol.com> maikai@aol.com (MAIKAI) writes:

>jonathan@psy.uq.oz.au (Jonathan DWYER) writes:
>
>>>>I'm looking for an itemised hospital bill for a health
>study.  I assume that no-one would provide me with a real
>one of their own<<<
>
>I'd be happy to send you one---e-mail your address.  The bill was for a
>few days, for a minor illness---but astronomical, considering.
>Particularly liked the thousands of dollars billed for the couple vials of
>blood taken every morning---had no idea my blood was so valuable.....bill
>also contains some "unbundling."



   Hospital bills are not all that useful, actually, because they don't
reflect the hospital's costs well, no matter what you see.  That one
dollar for the aspirin includes money for the demented people brought
in from the nursing home to same them from dying of urinary tract
infection, who the government doesn't pay adequate medicare for, and
the drunks who show up in the ER that the government doesn't pay
adequate medicaid for, all kinds of liability stuff because your local
juries are kind to damaged people (whether the hospital was at fault
for them basically or not), and on and on and on.  It's called "cost
shifting."   It's a feature of socialism.   All studies show that the
Brittish and the Canadians pay far more for their medical system than
they think they do, but the government has concealed it so well that
they don't mind it.  Perhaps that's what we should do in America.
Instead of a hospital bill, we just have you pay more little bits on
your 1040, and at the grocery store in VAT taxes, and so on and so on.
Soon your lifestyle will suck, but you won't be able to figure out
exactly why.  You'll just know you're not having fun and are sort of
"poor."   But no $1 aspirin to make your blood pressure rise, so it'll
be okay.


                                        Steve Harris, M.D.