Re: The Surgery - What Happened

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:12:36 GMT, "Karl Johanson"
<karljohanson@xxxxxxx> wrote:

"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
David V. Loewe, Jr <daveloewe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The bill for the first hospital stay (the operation and the
immediate post-op two week stay) was $91,100.

I can understand it would cost a fair amount, since it involves
several hours work by several highly skilled people. But how in
blazes can it cost *that* much?

I don't know if the profit margins are extremely high, or the cost
efficiency low, in this case or not. I do know that there was more cost
several hours work by several highly skilled people. There's the cost of
the work by the highly skilled people you mentioned, along with the cost
of the two week stay in the hospital (which includes costs of care
nurses, etc.), cost of medical imagery, cost of other medical testing,
cost of anaesthetics, cost of other medications, cost of sterile medical
gowns, dressings, sutchers and autoclaved surgical equipment, cost for
the use of the RFA unit and medical monitoring equipment (which must be
amortized over multiple patients), profit margins on all of the above,
and some extra so the doctors, et al, can afford malpractice insurance.

The itemized bill is impressively thick.
--
"The flame rises but it soon descends
Empty pages and a frozen pen
You're not quite lovers and you're not quite friends
After the thrill is gone,"
Don Henley & Glenn Frey
.

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