Did the hospital and the doctor charge the patient the right amount?

Live healthy and long

Rizal  Philippines  March 22, 2013

An agent who has been working with us for the last 2 months just called me up telling that his nephew Adrian would be going out of the hospital by tomorrow.  Adrian had a severe gouty arthritis and could not walk because of swollen knees.  Last week he had melena and had to be brought to the hospital and had to be operated on because of perforated stomach and intestine.  The possible culprit could be the  aspirin and other pain killers he took to relieve pain from gouty arthritis.

But the biggest challenge to the family was the huge medical bill they had to pay.  The hospital they went to is owned by a large conglomerate and obviously had high profit motive:  they had to pay P300,000 for the board and lodging, OR, meds, OR etc.  For the MDs who operated on the nephew, they had to cough another P300,000 each or a total P900,000.  (The MDs matched the hospital fees)  Her brother is all ready retired and did not have much savings but they had cars and sold two cars:  one of them is Toyotal Innova.

She asked me whether the charges were right, especially the PF.  I could not answer.

But what I can say are:

l.  The hospitals here, the big three, are obviously, like their US counterparts are profit driven.

2.  As for the PF, what is relevant here is the graduation speech of Cardinal Tagle to Ateneans this noon.

3.  The perforated stomach is not a physiological problem or microbes caused;  it is iatrogenic by hospital or treatment ie the prolonged analgesic treatment against the gouty arthritis.  (We expect liver and kidney problems too?)

What do you think of this issue?