>>>Do you know what a "hospital chargemaster" is? And you know that the chargemaster procedure is generally only regulated in Maryland and only made public in California? This is a rather important piece of the puzzle here that tends to get overlooked.
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>LOL. Yes I know a little about Chargemaster. Bill's $15K daily hotel charge will be comprised of inflated Chargemaster charges, but it's not the reason for the inflated charges. In effect Chargemaster is a glorified price list bearing little (no) relationship to the actual costs to the facility. Price lists exist abroad as well, but without the system-wide acceptance that sky-high margins are the norm.

Soooo perhaps addressing how all these magical numbers end up on the Chargemaster is a good place to start?