25 min listen
To get paid, hospitals get creative
FromAn Arm and a Leg
ratings:
Length:
16 minutes
Released:
Jun 12, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Hospital bills are too high, and insurance doesn’t cover enough. Turns out, that’s a crisis for hospitals too: more and more of us aren’t paying those bills, because we can’t. So, they’re getting creative about collecting — and offering discounts. Which raises questions about why the bills are so high to begin with.Photo courtesy James CrannellWe start with Chicago woodworker James Crannell, who — and there’s no non-scary way to say this — stuck his finger in a table saw.Even more scary: He didn’t have insurance. “I don’t know which was worse. The pain in my hand, or the fear of: What is this going to cost me?”Spoiler alert: The emergency-room didn’t charge him full price.This episode kicks off a series where we start asking: How did prices get so high to begin with? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Released:
Jun 12, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
How one drug got its $500,000 price tag. (With 99 Percent Invisible– Season One, episode 3): The answer involves a suburban housewife, a 1970s TV star, and a Las Vegas maker of popcorn and nacho cheese sauce. Also: Wall Street. Produced with our friends at 99 Percent Invisible. Many thanks to Abbey Meyers, Joshua Schein, and Nora Guthrie. by An Arm and a Leg