Have you ever wondered exactly what you or your insurance provider are being charged for after you have been hospitalized?
A recent report by CNN takes you inside a hospital operating room and outlines some of those common fees. But keep in mind, what a hospital charges and what you or your insurance provider ultimately pay are two very different figures.
Healthcare group purchasing organizations help hospitals control the costs of supplies. Without [GPOs], hospitals would be at the mercy of suppliers in terms of what they have to pay for these items. Those added costs would trickle down to patients. But through this alliance, many hospitals are able to have a substantial savings by negotiating as a group, instead of going it alone.
Kester Freeman blogs regularly at Action for Better Healthcare.