TREATING A CUT COSTS AVERAGE OF $821 IN OHIO EMERGENCY ROOMS

Stating the obvious would be saying that maintaining our health is important in our lives. Although we in the United States have some of the best health care available to us, it comes with a price. In fact, medical debt is a common reason why individuals seek bankruptcy protection.

Just how expensive is this medical care? Data from Truven Health Analytics shows that a single cut finger costs an average of $821 in an emergency room in the East North Central region of the country, which includes Ohio.

If that doesn’t shock our readers, knowing that it was only the third least “expensive” average across the nation might. The highest came from the Pacific region where patients could spend an average of $1,377 per cut.

Where does this money go? We’ll use the average for Ohio as an example. For an $821 bill, $242 goes to the doctor that did the stitching, and $579 goes to the hospital. According to experts, this large percentage of money going to the hospital isn’t medically based. It is instead, financial.

Economists acknowledge that certain rising costs, like ones for drugs and medical equipment, play a role in these high prices. Economists also say that there is little price regulation amongst the health care system. Beyond that, an almost monopoly was created after mergers and consolidations led to several very large hospital chains, giving them the power to “command high prices.”

The numbers listed in this post are for just a single cut. Imagine what a more serious procedure might cost? For many people, they don’t have to imagine.

Source: The New York Times, “As Hospital Prices Soar, a Stitch Tops $500,” Elisabeth Rosenthal, Dec. 2, 2013