I just received a bill for approximately 15 minutes of service at Sutter Gould. The waiting time was around 15 minutes. The atmosphere was professional and clean.
The RN checked for vitals. Time: approx 3 minutes.
The doctor came in checked ears, offered referral. We discussed 2 other general ailments and decided upon future labwork. He was an excellent listener and warm. Time: approx 12 minutes. (Yes, a person can discuss 3 large items with a doctor in 15 minutes).
Looking at my watch thereafter, the entire process took around 33 minutes inclusive of parking and walking.
Finding my bill:
-The insurance company was charged $256 (for 15 minutes of work).
-Co-pay was around thirty dollars.
-There was no special machines used in my time at Sutter (just blood pressure, stethoscope and ear checking device).
$256/15 minutes = over $1000 an hour.
$1000/hour = over 2 million dollars per year.
Please check your own bills and factor 1 hour x 2000 to get a yearly rate.
Even if you subtract "wait time" in which I waited in the lobby to see the doctor and they paid electricity, chairs, etc... That's over a million dollars.
No 900,000$MRI machines were used. No machines were used.
I don't think that nice doctor makes a million $ year.
Our family finds that health care is our second highest bill. We have a young family of 4. Based on the numbers above — there appears to be a large ammount of waste.
~follow up:
The ear doctor saw me for 45 minutes. This was the referral from the general practictioner. The ear doctor is self-employed (without medical foundation). The ear doctor had some very new machines that took pressure, searched for abnormalities, etc.
The complete bill for 45 minutes from an expert 'specialist' was 145$ inclusive of co-pay. The wait time at the small doctor office was 8 minutes.
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