The RAND hospital price study and the cash-pay underpayment claim

This can’t be true unless hospitals are chronically underpaid by cash paying customers.

“"The RAND study only underscores what we already know — that hospitals are chronically underpaid for Medicare services. Anything beyond that should be taken with a healthy measure of skepticism," the American Hospital Association said in a statement.”

If that’s the case, the question is: why would so many very smart people set cash prices so far below the cost of care?

Thanks to the CAA, we can see hospital charges for all payers. Medicaid is chronically low, but Medicare and Cash Pay prices are very close. It’s the 180 million Americans who are covered by employer sponsored insurance that take a beating with excessive prices.

Don’t believe me? Go take a look for yourself in the Hospital’s own published data.