Monday, July 07, 20082
Tylenol for $1,089.50 a pop?
Uh, no.
A patient complains about her emergency room bill. Of course after the fact, it looks absurd. But she didn't know beforehand whether it was something serious or not.
So, the $1,000+ was for a physician's evaluation, and the exclusion of life-threatening disease. Not just for the Tylenol.
Normally Dubner gets it right, but here the analysis is terribly short-sighted.
A patient complains about her emergency room bill. Of course after the fact, it looks absurd. But she didn't know beforehand whether it was something serious or not.
So, the $1,000+ was for a physician's evaluation, and the exclusion of life-threatening disease. Not just for the Tylenol.
Normally Dubner gets it right, but here the analysis is terribly short-sighted.
Comments
-
RoseAG
Geeze - I'll bet that student had a cell phone. Why didn't they call their mother? She would have told them to take two tylenol and see what happened.
-
KELLY
Wow! When my son was born (by c-sect) in 1991 - we got out bill from the hospital. I immediately requested the details...and discovered that we were basically charged for bringing me back to life! What? I did not realize that I had died while giving birth! When we called the hospital their response was "Oops..someone must have accidently keyed that in your file. Sorry!".
Post a CommentMy son is going off to school next fall. We have a huge co-pay on ER visits! Note to self: tell son to take two and call me the morning!
11:29 AM
2:16 PM