On Thu, Oct 30, 1997 at 09:33:52AM -0700, Tim May wrote:
Turns out that Blue Cross and Blue Shield have negotiated, through enormous buying power, daily rates of about $700 a day. (These numbers come from my memory of a "60 Minutes" report a few years ago. Details and current figures may vary.)
My wife is a pathologist, and she tells me that some of the more aggressive HMOs get away with paying 15-20% of the posted "official" prices for procedures and tests. The difference between what insurance organizations pay and the nominal price is usually 2 to 3 to 1 for most things these days. And for many years Medicare has set defined prices for medical reimbursement that less than the gold plated bill amount as well. -- Dave Emery N1PRE, die@die.com DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass. PGP fingerprint = 2047/4D7B08D1 DE 6E E1 CC 1F 1D 96 E2 5D 27 BD B0 24 88 C3 18