To paraphrase King Lear: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is ... to be stung and stung again."
Such was the case with Marcie Edmonds, 52, of Ahwatukee, Ariz., who had the misfortune of being stung in the abdomen by a scorpion, and then stung again by the hospital that is charging her $39,652 a dose for the antivenom they used to treat her.
Talk about a medical system gone awry.
In June, the scorpion pricked Mrs. Edmonds on the midsection as she was unpacking air conditioner filters in her garage. After a trip to a local emergency room, where she got two doses of the drug Anascorp, her symptoms improved and she was released.
All was well until a few weeks later when Mrs. Edmonds got a bill for $83,046, including $39,652 per dose for the drug.
The Arizona Republic reports that the antivenom, which is made in Mexico, routinely costs $100 a dose south of the border. After the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for sale here last year, a distributor sold it to hospitals for $3,780 a dose. The hospital marked it up more than 10 times higher.
Amazingly, the insurance company paid the hospital $57,509 and the hospital is asking Mrs. Edmonds for the balance of $25,537. The hospital says her charges were for out-of-network costs.
Ouch.
Isn't this how the term racketeering came about?
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9 comments:
This is an example of outrageousness so egregious that organized crime would envy!
OMG! Luckily she didn't have a heart attack when she saw that bill. What are out-of-network costs anyway?
this doesn't surprise me
An outrageous overpricing!
Sheer vilensss.
This is disgusting.
This is as bad as it gets.
I agree with everybody.
Capitalism at its finest! It's a good thing that our system doesn't need any reform and that non-profit hospitals can funnel those huge markups into new (but unnecessary building) projects.
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