Charges per treatment for NxStage.

[Jie]

And the actual cost of EPO to dialysis facilities is about $12.00 per 1,000 units.

This is probably the Medicare price. The $590 price from the Pharmacy is for 40,000 units, slightly higher than the Medicare price (12*40=$480). The $2700 charge is over 5 times of Medicare price then. When I had transplant, the hospital might charge higher price to my insurances than Medicare, like 20% or 30% higher. When the dialysis com. charges more than 500% higher than Medicare, it is something I feel like a "robbery".

[Zach]

While this chart (on page 16) is almost 10 years old, you can see that the 4 largest dialysis chains had good profit margins for EPO and other drugs, even between the Medicare approved reimbursement verses what it cost them.

This actual drug cost is referred to as Average Acquisition Cost or Average Sales Price (ASP).

http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-03-04-00120.pdf