I think health care expenses are being driven by hospitals. Here's one reader's experience.
How does this sound?. I had a rash and the derm doc put me on some steroids. I filled it at MY HOSPITAL pharmacy= $60. Checked with drugstoreDOTcom= $17 bucks.. A friend of mine across town runs the pharmacy at another hospital. Checked with him. Their cost = $6. Nice to know things like this. Does your hospital do it this way?
We got labs drawn for our IVF fertility stuff at both a hospital and at a local lab. The lab's cash price for phlebotomy fee was $4. The hospital's cash fee? Almost $40.
Forty bucks to draw blood. Not to run the blood, just to draw it. It's unbelievable what's going on out there. And I had no way of knowing what that price was until the bill came due. My words of advice. If you can avoid hospitals for the cash elective stuff, run as far away as you can, especially if you are paying cash.
Would you pay $20 a pound for tomatoes if you knew the cost up front? Until transparency in pricing is achieved, there will be no competition for the health care dollar. Health care expenses are driven by hospitals.
