> Unless you're claiming that hospitals only gouge some tiny subset of people and are benevolently generous to everyone else, that number is going to be much closer to 100% than 0.1%.
Actually, yes. Doctors and hospitals have relationships. When a hospital is aware that a good referral source referred them a patient, they will try to keep the patient happy to maintain that source of business.
They're very selective about who they try to screw.
Now if you walk in with no referral and no family doctor, then you're their source of profits and the party they'll try to milk.
Though, actually, the one time I've been referred to the ER by a doctor (he called ahead and everything), the billing was still a shitshow. Insurance delayed paying for months while they tried to work out a way to claim it was a pre-existing condition (this was pre-Obamacare), until the hospital gave up and tried to send me directly to collections for upwards of a quarter million dollars.
Given that most private practices (around here, anyway) usually have lucrative hospital affiliations, the incentive to keep doctors happy by keeping patients happy really doesn't exist.
Actually, yes. Doctors and hospitals have relationships. When a hospital is aware that a good referral source referred them a patient, they will try to keep the patient happy to maintain that source of business.
They're very selective about who they try to screw.
Now if you walk in with no referral and no family doctor, then you're their source of profits and the party they'll try to milk.