Average cost per day for hospital stay in the US.

Michael Z said:
We do have a lot better treatments in this day, that is for sure. And all of that factors in. But the cost of a room should not have increased as much as it has.

So we went from $80 for ten days to $30,000 for ten days now? 9 doublings in 80 years. A doubling every 9 years. This amounts to 8% inflation over the entire 80 years whereas the actual inflation has not even been half that.
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$30,000 for 5 days not ten. It would be $60,000 for 10. It also depends on what you ail from and what kind of treatment is needed and how much stuff you use. I think a tray of food here went from $8 to $10 a meal and the meals are horrible.
 
January said:
same here in public hospitals in Australia Oy
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In the year 2025 so far, I have spent over 80 days in hospital ( three different admissions ) here in Toronto. ZERO costs to me. Universal health care is the standard in the rest of the First World, but not in the United States.
 

Aunt Bea said:
Auctioneers have a saying, there is only so much money in the room.

Before Medicare was implemented in 1965 many many people paid out of pocket for healthcare or had a very simple restrictive major medical policy that cover catastrophic events and costs as well as care were much more basic.

After Medicare the bean counters took over the medical profession and turned it into the healthcare industry, prices began to climb.

I have mixed feelings about it. Today we don’t see nearly as much suffering and deformity in our day to day life which is definitely a blessing but I still feel that we would be better off if we accepted a less costly more human comfort care approach to medicine and our eventual death.
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This. Third party reimbursement other wise known as someone else is paying for it. Around the turn of the century there was a celebrity doctor who said the reason he wasn't as interested in medicine anymore was that there was too much time and emphasis and time on billing. (Dr Shawn early Survivor?)

I've seen double billing including myself and both the provider and insurance company rep knew and worked with each other yet the double bill wouldn't have been eliminated unless I called. 'Oh these things happen all time'

It's not just the providers or insurance companies by themselves it takes two to tango
 
I remember when office visits used to be $25. Now a regular MD office visit here is like $200-$300 without insurance. That's just stupid. Especially since they don't even examine you anymore.

You recite your symptoms and they say it sounds like blah blah blah we'll send over a script to your pharmacy and he is typing away which makes me feel like he's googling my stuff. I could do that myself.

The doctor came to see me once. After that I got the hospitalist. Each time they came was over $600. IDK what the PT visit cost for her to assess me. Most of the blood tests run around $400 and they do that crap several times a day.

I know each IV they have to run costs seperately. I had to have 4 or 5 done because the doxycycline last time was wrecking my veins.

So going off what it cost me the time I had pneumonia for $30,000 then the respiratory failure in April was $18,000 for 3 days. I have to request financial assistance each time cuz I can't pay all these bills. It's a shame.
 
Of all the insanity in the world today. I believe this tops the list. In my mind there simply is NO justification for this. Believe it or not, I fear doctors and hospitals More than any disease or injury that would send me to either! I had a heart attack in 2000, total bill was $58K, can't imagine what it would be today o_O? Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to them for saving me but I will always think the bill was way over inflated, even for 25 years ago. :coffee:Don...
 
It's mind boggling! The last time I was in the hospital (2016) was for 36 hours I think. I had a cardiac ablation done. I didn't pay one penny, thanks to my insurance which was Aetna Medicare HMO (I now have Aetna PPO). In 1989 when I had major surgery, I was on Healthways (which I think morphed into Aetna). I was in the hospital for 5 days. My total bill was $45. I had great plans when I worked for our municipality and later the State of N.J. One thing I'm glad I never chose is Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
 
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MACKTEXAS said:
It's interesting to find your post just now, since she (lady with the puncture from colonoscopy) just called me a few minutes ago, and she's finally home after a month in the hospital. They had to create a new "hole" (there's another word for it that I can't remember) for her stomach to drain contents because the puncture had made normal evacuation impossible.

So . . . "they got the polyps" (her words) at a very dear price. I believe many of us have polyps and just don't know it. I've read that about 5-10% of adenomatous polyps (the most common type) will eventually become cancerous - so that means a 90-95% chance removal is unnecessary.
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I think a lot of that is also due to family history. My uncle died of colon cancer in his 50's so I've had colonoscopies every 5 years as recommended.
 
My wife and I argued that we have our own twice daily pill routine but the hospital insists on bringing theirs up from their own pharmacy. Then they charge outlandish prices for the hospital pills
They claim that we can’t take our own prescribed pills while in the hospital.
Matter of hospital policy.
We think it is a rip but evidently the insurance companies don’t kind paying for what ever is on the bill. Minus a small out of pocket.
 
Well, I just got a possibly-incomplete statement of what my August ambulance ride and 37-hour hospital stay was billed for.

The ambulance was $800. The hospital stuff was, if you add everything up, like $80,000. However, the statement shows about half of it "denied" because (and I quote) "Payment included in allowance for another service".

What the hell does that mean? Did they try to bill Medicare twice for everything?

I'm too ticked off to call tomorrow and sit on the phone for hours on hold with Medicare and/or the hospital without screaming at someone. Nor can I log into my Medicare account 'cause IT WON'T LET ME!!!!

I swear, it would have been a lot cheaper to just die in my living room......I already have a pre-paid cremation policy.

OK, off the soapbox and the pity-party is over.
 
jujube said:
Well, I just got a possibly-incomplete statement of what my August ambulance ride and 37-hour hospital stay was billed for.

The ambulance was $800. The hospital stuff was, if you add everything up, like $80,000. However, the statement shows about half of it "denied" because (and I quote) "Payment included in allowance for another service".

What the hell does that mean? Did they try to bill Medicare twice for everything?

I'm too ticked off to call tomorrow and sit on the phone for hours on hold with Medicare and/or the hospital without screaming at someone. Nor can I log into my Medicare account 'cause IT WON'T LET ME!!!!

I swear, it would have been a lot cheaper to just die in my living room......I already have a pre-paid cremation policy.

OK, off the soapbox and the pity-party is over.
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That's how I felt after my bill from November. I could've laid on the couch and just waited a few more minutes to black out and it woulda been over with.
 
Us pensioners here in Australia are so lucky we do not have to pay for ambulance and hospital stay. When I had a triple bypass back in 2011 I was in for 6 days and didn't pay one cent. I had the best nursing care, but the food was terrible. Then in 2021 I
had keyhole surgery for bowel cancer and was in for 4 days then discharged, still nil payment and I had my own room and the
best of care.
 
oscash said:
Us pensioners here in Australia are so lucky we do not have to pay for ambulance and hospital stay.
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Just to clarify - whilst Medicare is nation wide and therefore same in all states - ambulance cover is not and so it varies from state to state

here in SA it is not free for pensioners or anybody else.

Ambulance insurance cover costs about $100 per person per year - well worth it when an ambualnce could cost thousands of dollars.
 
Our work provides an inexpensive emergency transport that I am told is also overseas called MASA. I pay $7 a paycheck and whatever the insurance doesn't pay MASA covers the rest.
 
seadoug said:
I think a lot of that is also due to family history. My uncle died of colon cancer in his 50's so I've had colonoscopies every 5 years as recommended.
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I understand your reasoning. I've never had a colonoscopy, but then I routinely decline most invasive screening. Six years ago, the urologist proposed a prostate biopsy due to an elevated PSA, which I declined as well. My PCP gives his input on these matters, but doesn't pursue screening I'm uncomfortable with.

The lady I posted about who got the colonoscopy and suffered damage from it, is in her 80s, and is somewhat of an exception, since she had already been hospitalized several times this year for a host of other unrelated medical issues, several of which will be ongoing indefinitely.

Here is one view from the Mayo Clinic regarding colonoscopy screening in advanced years.
 
To be fair, nearly all US hospital and doctor bills are reduced considerably by the time they're actually paid by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. The "negotiated" prices bear little resemblance to what's written on statements sent to patients.

The intent may be for us to feel grateful to have been given this expensive medical care and for us to be forever grateful for our "generous" medical benefits.

The game puts me in mind of big department stores that dramatically overprice merchandise so they can mark it down with a big "SALE" sign over the display.
 
StarSong said:
To be fair, nearly all US hospital and doctor bills are reduced considerably by the time they're actually paid by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. The "negotiated" prices bear little resemblance to what's written on statements sent to patients.
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I have a Medicare advantage plan & I've seen that reduction on statements. One instance as an example.

I don't remember the reduction amount on my spinal surgery but before reduction the hospital bill & surgeons bill totaled in excess of $850,000.00 my cost was $0.00.

The stay at a rehab center was the same no cost to me for the two week stay & physical therapists

I wonder what would have happened if I was uninsured.
 

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