FMC Monopoly on chairs in West Virginia

[Keith L WOOLFORD SR]

Ok for those that know I'm rejecting my transplant.
But I'm paying out of pocket for everything, now the Eastern panhandle FMC doesn't want to give me a chair because I'm self pay.
Now my insurance through work will start on 1-1-2020
They want me to stay in the hospital until it starts or they won't treat me unless I go to er and get admitted. Are they that money hungry that they will go that far? I see why Davita is taking over.

I can't believe it's franchised out and they making it all about the Benjamins.....

[Michael Murphy]

What’s weird is that self pay is the most profitable for the vendors.  Last time I was on private insurance 2 years ago Medicare rates were around 360 a session, my insurance was paying around 1500 a session and self pay was around 4500 a session.

[Simon Dog]

I'd bet they negotiated some sort of regular customer discount off the $4500 and few can afford $54K/month on an ongoing basis.  It's like collect or new car pricing - figure out the absolute max a given customer can cough up and set a price for that specific customer.

[Michael Murphy]

The large self pay assumes that they won’t be paid, after they take it as a tax loss they get about 1500 back on taxes.

[Simon Dog]

It also assumes that some insurance companies will cough it up, as mine did at $5025 per session when I traveled.

The list prices are fantasy - something like $50 for a syringe for example.

[Riki]

I do not understand those prices.  I have never paid more than $600 per treatment while in the US.  Mind you, I've only been to three different clinics in the US, and two of them were Davita clinics.  The third was private.  The private one was in NYC, and I'd been there several times over the years.  When I started going, the price was $400 per session, but the price went up to $600.  I paid $480 in Atlanta, and $330 in Philadelphia.  I'm planning on Denver in August, but haven't started talking to the dialysis clinic there yet.  It's on my to-do list for the new year.

FYI.. I'm in Canada, so my treatments are provided to me, free of charge, and are paid for by my tax dollars.  Because it's government provided, everything is done on the cheap, the best that the least amount of money can buy. *LOL*

[Simon Dog]

I do not understand those prices.

That sort of multi-tier pricing is typical of the US medical system.   Its like college or car pricing in the US - figure out a way to charge each customer the absolute most that individual will cough up.  Insured .... ooop, you have an effective negotiator.  Uninsured - you'll be dead if you don't pay whatever we want.  White middle class kid with Eduo-American surname?  Full price for college.  Black kid with Spanish surname and questionable immigration stats - no problem, we'll charge the white suburban kids a bit more so we can give you a scholarship.