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  3. (1) Considering that industry analysts claim that hospital price calculations are arbitrary, we asked hospitals nationwide a sim

(1) Considering that industry analysts claim that hospital price calculations are arbitrary, we asked hospitals nationwide a sim

admin2022-10-30  45
问题     (1) Considering that industry analysts claim that hospital price calculations are arbitrary, we asked hospitals nationwide a simple question: How do you calculate your sticker prices? Five declined to comment or didn’t provide an answer, leaving Murray Askinazi, senior vice-president and CFO of Lawrence Hospital Center in Bronxville, New York, to offer this explanation: For an outpatient MRI (磁共振成像), as an example, his hospital calculates its charge based on such factors as the cost of buying or leasing the machinery, the wear and tear on that machine, staff salaries, the climate control and electric bill, cleaning costs, local competitive pricing, and other costs related to the hospital’s overhead, like malpractice insurance.
    (2) Surprisingly, medical services can vary wildly from one hospital to the next. The median charge for acute appendicitis admissions at 289 medical centers and hospitals throughout California, for example, ranged from $1529 to almost $183000, an Archives of Internal Medicine study reported in April. Within San Francisco alone, the range between the lowest and highest charge was nearly $172000.
    (3) But hospital sticker prices matter only to a limited extent because they typically get trumped by a higher power: the amounts that insurance companies are willing to pay for those services. The figures are determined by a negotiated contract that dictates the rate at which the companies will reimburse the hospital on the patient’s behalf. In addition, the rates paid by Medicare and Medicaid, Askinazi adds, often fail to cover the hospital’s cost of providing the service in the first place, which means some of those costs are often shifted to commercially insured patients.
    (4) Now, all those factors affect the math for one simple outpatient test. For an inpatient hospital stay, those computations sprout into an intricate vine in which every service (from radiology to pathology) generates its own charges. The hospital also has facility charges, covering room and board, certain room-use fees (such as the operating room), and nursing services, all of which get consolidated into the bill sent to you and your insurance company.
    (5) As technology advances, those charges rise. Palmer had a client from Louisville, Kentucky, who was astonished to receive a charge of $45330 for a prostate surgery and an overnight stay (insurance would cover only $4 845). The billing department told Palmer that the steep price was not only because it was a robotic procedure but also because patients who receive the high-tech surgery shortly after the hospital starts offering it are helping to recoup (偿还) the facility’s equipment costs. (本文选自 Reader’s Digest)
Which of the following can be inferred from Para. 3?
选项 A、Some of the hospital costs will be covered by commercial insurance companies.
B、Insurance companies are willing to pay for all the charges.
C、Hospital sticker prices usually get trumped by a higher power from the hospital.
D、The rate that insurance companies will pay is determined by themselves.
答案A
解析 推断题。文章第三段最后提到，一部分医疗费用会由患者购买的商业保险来报销，A与文义表述一致，故为正确答案。B含有绝对词all，且文中并末提及所表述的内容，故排除；该段第一句提到了医院标价问题的影响有限，因为另一个更加强大的因素对病人的影响更大：保险公司愿意为医疗服务支付的数额，由此可知，该因素并不是来自医院，而是来自保险公司，故排除C；由该段第二句可知，保险公司赔偿比例由公司和患者协商的合同决定，故排除D。
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