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The $676 bag of salt water

By adamg on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 10:13am

Mike the Mad Biologist analyzes the bill from a recent four-hour ER visit, including a %676 charge for a bag of saline solution.

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Comments

By Tea Bagger on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:31am.

Best health care system in the world!

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By Jeff F on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 1:26pm.

If so, I'll point out that:

health insurance system ≠ health care system

The (lack of) efficiency and fairness in the first may affect the efficacy of the second, but they are not the same thing. From his own account, Mike got excellent care.

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By datadyne007 on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 12:37pm.

I needed 3 bags of it sophomore year after not taking proper care of myself in studio preparing for the final crit (severe dehydration). I went to Harvard Vanguard Fenway (which services the CoF). It was all covered by my insurance. I never paid a dime.

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By anon on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 6:50pm.

So they screw up and give him a nasty infection from his surgery, and then they get insane profits from an IV bag?

Hey, how about this: they should be responsible for any problems that result from his initial operation.

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By Kaz on Mon, 01/02/2012 - 1:25am.

But more goes into the IV therapy other than the saline bag. The single-use sterile tubing and needle cost money too (not tons, but something). There's the expertise of the ER nurse who made sure the line went into a vein and not the muscle. That ER nurse also had to make sure he knew how much saline to push and for how long.

It's also entirely possible that they mixed something into the saline that he was unaware of. Finally, he might have even gotten charged for the bed next door that got a much more expensive treatment via IV line and the two orders got mixed up (ERs can be crazy like that).

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