Comments on: Why is “sterile supply” on a medical bill so damn pricey? http://www.medicalsupplyservices.com/blog/why-is-sterile-supply-on-a-medical-bill-so-damn-pricey/ Thu, 24 May 2012 17:19:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: da-vooo http://www.medicalsupplyservices.com/blog/why-is-sterile-supply-on-a-medical-bill-so-damn-pricey/comment-page-1/#comment-1981 da-vooo Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:07:50 +0000 http://www.medicalsupplyservices.com/blog/why-is-sterile-supply-on-a-medical-bill-so-damn-pricey/#comment-1981 If you have PPO or POS type insurance (or traditional Medicare), you need to check your insurance company's actual payment. Of the more than $18,000 billed (for doctor and facility fees) the actual transfer of money will be in the $3,000 range. If you have HMO type insurance (or "Medicare Advantage") the doctor and the facility get even less. (They may get "nothing" above and beyond the monthly "capitation" checks they get. If there is a fee-for-service contract, it will probably pay 2/3 or 3/4 of the PPO's payment and something between 75% and 150% of the "Medicare allowable." If you're paying out of pocket, you are getting screwed by being billed for amounts that have no basis in reality. The reasons that we in the US are having a big battle about health care reform is that the non-system we have makes no sense and because there's no one answer that will satisfy all of "the players" or the spectrum of political/economic philosophies in our country. Hospitals and outpatient surgical or diagnostic facilities price items and services much higher than the insurance companies want to pay so they can be sure to get the the most that companies' will pay after negotiations are over In addition, sterile supplies really are more expensive than non-sterile supplies because of increased costs regarding handling, packaging and sterilization as well as because of the fact of limited shelf-life. For colonoscopy your sterile supplies included IV tubing and IV insertion kit, oxygen cannula, pulse oximeter sensing unit, blood pressure cuff, the doctor's and the nurses' splash protection items, etc., etc. Not even included in "supplies" is the labor intensive and expensive machine-dependent sterilization procedure for a colonoscope. The sterilizing procedure takes "too long," so facilities need to double up on scopes and non-disposable accessories. For example, if you have 3 working rooms you need not 3 but 6 or 9 colonoscopes OF EACH TYPE. Here we're talking about something like $25,000 a pop. In a busy lab, they are lucky to get 3 years out of a scope. During the three years there will probably be $25,000 in repairs as well. May your biopsies be negative and your future colonoscopies be normal!<a href="http://www.safedebthelp.com/debt-relief-help.htm"> da-vooo</a> If you have PPO or POS type insurance (or traditional Medicare), you need to check your insurance company’s actual payment. Of the more than $18,000 billed (for doctor and facility fees) the actual transfer of money will be in the $3,000 range. If you have HMO type insurance (or “Medicare Advantage”) the doctor and the facility get even less. (They may get “nothing” above and beyond the monthly “capitation” checks they get. If there is a fee-for-service contract, it will probably pay 2/3 or 3/4 of the PPO’s payment and something between 75% and 150% of the “Medicare allowable.”

If you’re paying out of pocket, you are getting screwed by being billed for amounts that have no basis in reality.

The reasons that we in the US are having a big battle about health care reform is that the non-system we have makes no sense and because there’s no one answer that will satisfy all of “the players” or the spectrum of political/economic philosophies in our country.

Hospitals and outpatient surgical or diagnostic facilities price items and services much higher than the insurance companies want to pay so they can be sure to get the the most that companies’ will pay after negotiations are over

In addition, sterile supplies really are more expensive than non-sterile supplies because of increased costs regarding handling, packaging and sterilization as well as because of the fact of limited shelf-life.

For colonoscopy your sterile supplies included IV tubing and IV insertion kit, oxygen cannula, pulse oximeter sensing unit, blood pressure cuff, the doctor’s and the nurses’ splash protection items, etc., etc. Not even included in “supplies” is the labor intensive and expensive machine-dependent sterilization procedure for a colonoscope. The sterilizing procedure takes “too long,” so facilities need to double up on scopes and non-disposable accessories. For example, if you have 3 working rooms you need not 3 but 6 or 9 colonoscopes OF EACH TYPE. Here we’re talking about something like $25,000 a pop. In a busy lab, they are lucky to get 3 years out of a scope. During the three years there will probably be $25,000 in repairs as well.

May your biopsies be negative and your future colonoscopies be normal! da-vooo

]]> By: robert b http://www.medicalsupplyservices.com/blog/why-is-sterile-supply-on-a-medical-bill-so-damn-pricey/comment-page-1/#comment-1980 robert b Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:37:48 +0000 http://www.medicalsupplyservices.com/blog/why-is-sterile-supply-on-a-medical-bill-so-damn-pricey/#comment-1980 the tools used are very specific, and usually if they have contact with tissue(infective or otherwise) and have areas that cant possibly be cleaned to the certainty required to call a procedure sterile(tiny forceps, interior passages of colonoscopes) have to be discarded. they would rather be sure than face the possibilty of being liable for malpractice if you could prove an adverse outcome directly traceable to an instrument that had been reused. they feel better safe than sorry<a href="http://www.prohomeschool.com/homeschool-driver-education.htm"> robert b</a> the tools used are very specific, and usually if they have contact with tissue(infective or otherwise) and have areas that cant possibly be cleaned to the certainty required to call a procedure sterile(tiny forceps, interior passages of colonoscopes) have to be discarded. they would rather be sure than face the possibilty of being liable for malpractice if you could prove an adverse outcome directly traceable to an instrument that had been reused. they feel better safe than sorry robert b

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