Most expensive hospitals in New York

[pickledpepperRN]

Ok, I am not from New York, nor have I lived there. I really enjoyed NYC when visiting. Truly exciting and for this night nurse wonderful to be in "The City that Never Sleeps" Wish I had seen the rest of your state and plan to some day.

Anyway, I hope you find this interesting;

http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/090904/a0109markups.html

Nyack Hospital charges 348%

By JANE LERNER

THE JOURNAL NEWS (New York)

(Original publication: September 9, 2004)

Nyack Hospital is one of the most expensive hospitals in New York, according to a national study of health-care costs charged to patients that was released yesterday by a California organization.

The study says Nyack Hospital charges patients an average of 348 percent of its cost for such items as prescription drugs, medical supplies and operating room service. The hospital ranks seventh in New York, and its average is significantly higher than the national average of a 232 percent, the study says.

"A major cause of the health-care crisis in this country are costs that are skyrocketing out of control," said Charles Idelson, a spokesman for the California Nurses Association, an Oakland union that commissioned the report done by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, a nonprofit research organization.

The report is based on cost reports that hospitals are required to supply to the federal government.

"Hospitals are not helpless victims," Idelson said, "they are significant players in creating and exacerbating a national crisis."

The report also cites rising costs charged to hospitals by pharmaceutical companies and for-profit insurance companies.

Nyack Hospital spokesman Brian Thompson said yesterday that the hospital had not been able to see the entire report and so it was difficult to comment directly about it.

He said, however, that the hospital did reduce its room and board charges in January and had not increased its fees for such services as X-rays, lab tests and medical supplies in more than a year.

Nyack was the only hospital in Rockland, Westchester or Putnam counties to make the group's top-10 list for New York. Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern charges 229 percent of its costs, according to the study.

Monica Mahaffey, a spokeswoman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, an industry group, questioned the report.

"Two-thirds of hospitals in New York are losing money," she said. "The gap between what hospitals pay for services and what they are reimbursed by public and private insurance is increasing all the time."

Nyack Hospital ended last year with an operating profit of more than $1.3 million, according to its annual audit.

Local patients said they had long been stunned by their hospital bills.

Pearl River resident Robert Tompkins has been receiving regular treatments at Nyack Hospital for nine months. He estimated he had received bills totaling more than $40,000.

"All I can say is, thank God for Medicare," Tompkins said. "If I didn't have it, I'd have lost my house by now. I don't know how people who don't have insurance pay these bills."

He was recently billed almost $3,000 for a single injection that he received in July. But he was quick to point out that that amount didn't come out of his pocket.

Medicare paid $2,507, leaving him with a charge of $492, most of which was then paid by his supplementary insurance plan.

He said he suspected that high markups were used to offset the cost of medical care for people who didn't have health insurance.

"We're chipping in for the less fortunate," Tompkins said. "It's not really a profit for the hospitals, it's a subsidy to provide for people in need."

He's right, said Arthur Levin, director of the Center for Medical Consumers, a Manhattan advocacy group: People who have insurance are forced to pay for the millions who do not.

High markups passed along to consumers are a symptom of larger ills within the health-care system, Levin said.

"It's not a rational system," Levin said. "We have cost shifting because so many people lack insurance."

Hospitals have to raise enough money to provide for patients who cannot pay, Levin said, and marking up services is one way they do that.

The only solution is a national health insurance plan, Levin said.

Local residents said they didn't begrudge hospitals some profit.

"But anything above a 50 percent markup strikes me as excessive," said Nanuet resident Clinton Taplin, who has had many experiences over the years with Nyack Hospital.

He remembers reviewing a hospital bill he got several years ago and noting that he was charged four or five times what he normally paid for his diabetes medication.

"You pay whatever they charge you," he said. "It's not like you're in a position to shop around."

Betty Sicher noticed a charge of $200 for an over-the-counter pain medication her husband received when he had minor surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital.

"Two hundred dollars for a Tylenol?" the Spring Valley resident said. "It's ridiculous."

She was even more shocked when she saw the charges for the five hours her husband spent in the hospital for cataract surgery: $20,000.

"It takes your breath away," she said.

But, she noted, she and her husband are covered by Medicare and paid little out of pocket for the operation.

"What are you supposed to do if you don't have insurance?" she asked. "The whole system is a mess. We really need universal health insurance."

Send e-mail to Jane Lerner

Patient charges

Here are the 10 hospitals with the highest charges on medications, services and other items in New York state. The New York state average is 213 percent of cost, which means that the consumer is charged $213 for items that cost the hospital $100.

1. Parkway Hospital, Forest Hills, 698.54 percent.

2. Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan, 452.37 percent.

3. Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, East Patchogue, 447.51 percent.

4. Long Beach Medical Center, Long Beach, 377.24 percent.

5. Victory Memorial Hospital, Brooklyn, 370.25 percent.

6. Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Poughkeepsie, 354 percent.

7. Nyack Hospital, Nyack, 348.59 percent.

8. Interfaith Medical Center, Brooklyn, 342.39 percent.

9. St. Luke's Hospital, Newburgh, 322.85 percent.

10. Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, 321.64 percent.