Is price-gouging legal? (insurance, complaint, buy, company)
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The issue has occasionally come up in the news when a local company has hiked prices during a disaster.
But I was thinking of it now in terms of this article about hospital charges. For instance, as this author says, charging "$20 for a pill that costs pennies at a pharmacy." We all expect a reasonable mark-up. But is there some point when it becomes illegal, especially when they're taking advantage of a captive clientele?
The issue has occasionally come up in the news when a local company has hiked prices during a disaster.
But I was thinking of it now in terms of this article about hospital charges. For instance, as this author says, charging "$20 for a pill that costs pennies at a pharmacy." We all expect a reasonable mark-up. But is there some point when it becomes illegal, especially when they're taking advantage of a captive clientele?
Medical costs are mostly governed by Medicare/Medicaid and contracted insurance company reimbursements, rack rates are rarely paid. I used to audit Hospitals and many costs are much higher than the cost of the item, but not unreasonable when take into account the other costs to provide the item. For example a $500 blood test may cost less than $10 incrementally to actually run but that does not include the test equipment purchase cost, the person drawing blood, the technician that runs the machine, the building that houses the machine, the electricity to run the machine, etc.
In your example, the $20 pill cost at the pharmacy doesn't include the cost of the diagnose, the cost of the nurse to administer / deliver, the cost of the facility, etc - it is not the cost of the pill, it is the cost imbedded to deliver the pill.
I am not sure price gouging is illegal unless there was fraud involved, for instance you agree to a price but they charge you something else. Lots of businesses get accused of some form of it, like tow-trucks.
With a hospital you probably signed something when admitted that you agree to pay all for all goods and services as part of your treatment so you are technically not being defrauded and you could ask for a price list when admitted, or you could go elsewhere.
As the poster above said, a lot of what you are paying for is labor and overhead so what looks like price gouging is not really that much of a gouge in the end.
My complaint with all service providers is that they engage in secret deals with insurance which means any price list they have is not the true price. I think each provider should charge the same price to all customers whether they have insurance or not. Each provider can set its own price, but once it sets it, that is what all patients pay to that provider.
There are limited instances when price gouging is illegal. In my state- Florida- a disaster declaration fixes the price of what are seen as 'necessary' items like bottled water, gasoline, hotel rooms, plywood, etc. as the greater of what the price was at the time the disaster declaration was issued or the real verified cost to the supplier of the item until the disaster declaration runs out.
The issue has occasionally come up in the news when a local company has hiked prices during a disaster.
But I was thinking of it now in terms of this article about hospital charges. For instance, as this author says, charging "$20 for a pill that costs pennies at a pharmacy." We all expect a reasonable mark-up. But is there some point when it becomes illegal, especially when they're taking advantage of a captive clientele?
We don't have planned economy or fixed price of any thing.
Just go to any store and you see it not fixed price and they are not in jail.
Yes be it food or electronics. Like one stores have pop and chips for $2, other $3, other $6
they do that all the time.
Go buy LG TV model XX at one store for $700 and other store for $850
Thay are not in jail.
I think the only time when they trying to sale some thing to sick people. There was talk about going after people to try sale face mask to stop virus and trying to get rich of this virus.
So people using this virus to get rich and that is what you are probably hearing.
The issue has occasionally come up in the news when a local company has hiked prices during a disaster.
But I was thinking of it now in terms of this article about hospital charges. For instance, as this author says, charging "$20 for a pill that costs pennies at a pharmacy." We all expect a reasonable mark-up. But is there some point when it becomes illegal, especially when they're taking advantage of a captive clientele?
Also you have to understand the US spend more on healthcare than any country in the world but lot of the problem is there is only a handful of healthcare providers in the US.
And healthcare cost is going up exponentially in the US every year.
In response to Governor Rick DeSantis signing a state of emergency declaration Monday, Attorney General Ashley Moody activated Florida's price gouging hotline Tuesday.
The governor's declaration puts protective masks, sanitizing and disinfecting supplies, such as hand sanitizer, gel, wipes, cleaning supplies for surface cleaning, and all commercial cleaning supplies and all commercial cleaning supplies under scrutiny for price gouging.
Quote:
Violators of the price gouging statute are subject to civil penalties of $1,000 per violation and up to a total of $25,000 for multiple violations committed in a single 24-hour period.
The issue has occasionally come up in the news when a local company has hiked prices during a disaster.
But I was thinking of it now in terms of this article about hospital charges. For instance, as this author says, charging "$20 for a pill that costs pennies at a pharmacy." We all expect a reasonable mark-up. But is there some point when it becomes illegal, especially when they're taking advantage of a captive clientele?
Care to guess how long it will be before none of those items are available in Florida at any price? If anything really comes out of the Corona virus scare, it will be a very short time indeed.
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