alt Hacker NewsYou can search for more reports, because they do vary based on methodology. But the median hospital in the US makes between -1% (yes, negative, they lose money, because a huge percentage are non profits) and 4% depending on the source.
When the hospital charges you $37 for an aspirin, that singular pill might have a crazy profit margin in isolation. But your entire treatment could very well be losing the hospital money.
In my own anecdotal experience, the one hospital I know enough details about to comment on specifically, had something like 85% of patients costing the hospital more money than the hospital made. It was entirely funded by the relatively small number of people who had the “right” insurance and had the “right” procedures done.
Eg Kaufman: https://www.vizient.com/insights/reports/national-hospital-f...
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It's the salaries. That's where all the money is going. So that 37$ asperin, the profits... most of it is going to pay salaries. Not just of the doctors but administrators and all that.
fyi: Your link returns a 404 for me.
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Not buying any of this when the world is now full of dark patterns¹ and the ultimate result is that people in charge keep getting richer, faster.
It is a system where all prices and costs are so far detached from reality for multiple reasons, that looking at any current profit margins is not going to be very realistic either.
Really need to step back and start from first principles.
When I go to urgent care I get 15 minutes with a doctor who on average makes about $300K and maybe another 15 minutes with a nurse assistant who might be making $100K (or less). So that is less than $50 in doctor+nurse salary. Of course there are then all the overhead of rent, utilities, etc, etc but those are not so different from any other business in the same strip mall. So let's say total cost for my visit is maybe $100. But I'm charged $500-$600 for the visit. Someone is pocketing a lot of money and it is not the doctor nor the nurse.
We could do the same exercise for surgery, the costs for surgeons and anestethicians is much higher, but you'll be hard pressed to find any realistic scenario where the cost of a two hour surgery is more than $100K.