Who's right, Democrats or Republicans?

[Cruella]

$7 each for “alcohol prep pad.” This is a little square of cotton used to apply alcohol to an injection. A box of 200 can be bought online for $1.91.

The $7 has nothing to do with the cotton pad. Someone has to order it. Someone else purchases it. Someone receives it into shipping. Someone inventories it. Someone pulls it from inventory to go to a specific area of the hospital. Someone inventories it on the floor. Someone takes it from the floor stock and uses it on the patient and charts it. Someone in accounting has to match up all the ordering and receiving paperwork to cut a check to pay the vendor. Someone in accounting has to prepare the patients bill and someone has to prepare the patients insurance billing. Someone has to track receipt of the insurance payment and someone has to do the banking for the payment.

I bet you'll find a flow chart of all the hands that a box of cotton pads passes through and all the paperwork to support it.

When I worked in job costing departments, we priced the inventory cost of manufacturing a product at labor x's 300% plus the cost of material. And that was just what it cost for us to make it and put it into inventory, not what we sold it for. Then it probably was sold for another 20 or 30% on top of that.

Where else do they get the money to pay for their overhead? I have no clue what the overhead costs of running a hospital are, but I would guess it's quite high and a lot more than 300%.

 

[Texas_tea]

The $7 has nothing to do with the cotton pad. Someone has to order it. Someone else purchases it. Someone receives it into shipping. Someone inventories it. Someone pulls it from inventory to go to a specific area of the hospital. Someone inventories it on the floor. Someone takes it from the floor stock and uses it on the patient and charts it. Someone in accounting has to match up all the ordering and receiving paperwork to cut a check to pay the vendor. Someone in accounting has to prepare the patients bill and someone has to prepare the patients insurance billing. Someone has to track receipt of the insurance payment and someone has to do the banking for the payment.

I bet you'll find a flow chart of all the hands that a box of cotton pads passes through and all the paperwork to support it.

When I worked in job costing departments, we priced the inventory cost of manufacturing a product at labor x's 300% plus the cost of material. And that was just what it cost for us to make it and put it into inventory, not what we sold it for. Then it probably was sold for another 20 or 30% on top of that.

Where else do they get the money to pay for their overhead? I have no clue what the overhead costs of running a hospital are, but I would guess it's quite high and a lot more than 300%.

Evil Capitalist ....

 

[Lagboltz]

The $7 has nothing to do with the cotton pad. Someone has to order it. Someone else purchases it. Someone receives it into shipping. Someone inventories it. Someone pulls it from inventory to go to a specific area of the hospital. Someone inventories it on the floor. Someone takes it from the floor stock and uses it on the patient and charts it. Someone in accounting has to match up all the ordering and receiving paperwork to cut a check to pay the vendor. Someone in accounting has to prepare the patients bill and someone has to prepare the patients insurance billing. Someone has to track receipt of the insurance payment and someone has to do the banking for the payment.

I bet you'll find a flow chart of all the hands that a box of cotton pads passes through and all the paperwork to support it.

When I worked in job costing departments, we priced the inventory cost of manufacturing a product at labor x's 300% plus the cost of material. And that was just what it cost for us to make it and put it into inventory, not what we sold it for. Then it probably was sold for another 20 or 30% on top of that.

Where else do they get the money to pay for their overhead? I have no clue what the overhead costs of running a hospital are, but I would guess it's quite high and a lot more than 300%.

I agree 300% is reasonable.

Here is the math for the hospital:
200 pads for $2 = 10 cents each
Patient charge is $7
That is a markup of 7000%.

I think that is very unreasonable.

Putting the 10 cent pad cost into the billing machinery adds an extra unnecessary cost when it can easily be bundled as part of the injection cost. If you read the article I cited you will find very many similar unreasonable cost hikes.

 

[Cruella]

I agree 300% is reasonable.

Here is the math for the hospital:
200 pads for $2 = 10 cents each
Patient charge is $7
That is a markup of 7000%.

I think that is very unreasonable.

Putting the 10 cent pad cost into the billing machinery adds an extra unnecessary cost when it can easily be bundled as part of the injection cost. If you read the article I cited you will find very many similar unreasonable cost hikes.

The 300% I quoted was from 20 years ago and that was for a small manufacturing company.
Accounting for and controlling costs there were much easier than in a large medical complex.

How much do you think it costs a hospital to open it's doors for business for just one day? I doubt if 300% even covers the costs involved in the building.


Some of the things I'm sure exist for the building are;
Rent/Mortgage
Improvements
Repairs
Bldg. Maintenance
Equipment maintenance
Parking structures
Security
Utilities
Property taxes
Generators
And there are probably dozens of other expenses that relate to just the building.

Then the staffing of all the departments has to be one of the biggest expenses.

Doctors/nurses/administrators/pharmacy/lab and xray techs/dieticians/therapists/purchasing offices/general Admin. offices/accounting offices/insurance offices/legal departments/social services/emergency services & ambulatory services/shipping receiving/inventory/janitorial/grounds maintenance/IT departments/blah blah blah.

Also these companies are highly departmentalized and are accounted for separately. The shot in it's self is probably a pharm department item. Maybe there is some insurance or government regulation that requires hospitals to bill the way they do. I'm sure it would be easier for the hospital to bill for the pad in combination with the shot, so you can bet
on there being rules governing why it's done that way.

 

[Lagboltz]

The 300% I quoted was from 20 years ago and that was for a small manufacturing company.
Accounting for and controlling costs there were much easier than in a large medical complex.

How much do you think it costs a hospital to open it's doors for business for just one day? I doubt if 300% even covers the costs involved in the building.


Some of the things I'm sure exist for the building are;
Rent/Mortgage
Improvements
Repairs
Bldg. Maintenance
Equipment maintenance
Parking structures
Security
Utilities
Property taxes
Generators
And there are probably dozens of other expenses that relate to just the building.

Then the staffing of all the departments has to be one of the biggest expenses.

Doctors/nurses/administrators/pharmacy/lab and xray techs/dieticians/therapists/purchasing offices/general Admin. offices/accounting offices/insurance offices/legal departments/social services/emergency services & ambulatory services/shipping receiving/inventory/janitorial/grounds maintenance/IT departments/blah blah blah.

Also these companies are highly departmentalized and are accounted for separately. The shot in it's self is probably a pharm department item. Maybe there is some insurance or government regulation that requires hospitals to bill the way they do. I'm sure it would be easier for the hospital to bill for the pad in combination with the shot, so you can bet
on there being rules governing why it's done that way.

You really have to read the Time Magazine article to see what hospitals are doing rather than guessing. If you disagree with aspects of the article then we can discuss it.

 

[Cruella]

You really have to read the Time Magazine article to see what hospitals are doing rather than guessing. If you disagree with aspects of the article then we can discuss it.

I'm not just guessing and I am also suspicious of anything coming out of a Time Inc. article. But I will try to find out who Mr. Brill is and try to approach his article with an open mind.

 

[dogtowner]

I agree 300% is reasonable.

Here is the math for the hospital:
200 pads for $2 = 10 cents each
Patient charge is $7
That is a markup of 7000%.

I think that is very unreasonable.

Putting the 10 cent pad cost into the billing machinery adds an extra unnecessary cost when it can easily be bundled as part of the injection cost. If you read the article I cited you will find very many similar unreasonable cost hikes.

Try buying some at 10cents. Even if you buy a pallet of them.

 

[PLC1]

Who's right, Democrats or Republicans? Tell me your thoughts

If right means correct on the issues, then neither of them is right. The Democrats and Republicans both want the same thing - power. Neither one is interested in helping the country, only in promoting the party.

 

[Lagboltz]

Try buying some at 10cents. Even if you buy a pallet of them.

A box of 200 can be bought online for $1.91.

 

[Lagboltz]

I'm not just guessing and I am also suspicious of anything coming out of a Time Inc. article. But I will try to find out who Mr. Brill is and try to approach his article with an open mind.

I didn't research him either before I posted the article. After a cursory look I found he wrote a book "Class Warfare", (school classrooms.) He is against teacher's unions, which does not seem to be a liberal stance, but what do I know I don't have kids in school.