Hospitals charge people for blood transfusions.. and organs transplants can be tens of thousands of dollars.. i find it hard to believe that the surgery itself would cost that much. My fear is that the institutions that collect them sell them to the hospitals to make money.. in turn forcing the hospital to charge the patient for it as well.. or even just the hospital charging for it for profit. Does anyone know how this works?
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I actually work in transplant surgery specifically. I think the premise of your question is so off-base that I find it difficult to answer. There seem to be a lot of assumptions here that are vastly incorrect.
First things first, hospitals charge entities called “payors” for blood transfusions, transplants, and all forms of medical care. A payor is an insurance company most often, and less often the Medicare/Medicaid system. In even fewer cases, the bill is passed directly to the patient, which I think is what you’re talking about. Let me be clear, there isn’t a health care facility in the US that goes after the patient first – there’s simply very little point to go after someone who is extremely unlikely to be wealthy enough to pay those bills, so we either charge a payor or *do our best to help you acquire insurance*.
Second, an organ transplant can actually cost upwards of $200,000, plus whatever preoperative or postoperative care is involved.
Third. The institutions that coordinate and transport human organs are, by law, either not-for-profit organizations or government entities. They make exactly enough to keep the lights on and slowly expand their services, but that’s it.
Fourth, let’s discuss profit. I mentioned this phrase earlier: not-for-profit. A not-for-profit organization or entity makes money above their operational costs by definition, but in turn spends that money on expanding their organization, also by design.
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