Ebola patient's care at Presbyterian probably cost hundreds of thousands

The price of caring for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan likely ran into hundreds of thousands of dollars, medical experts said Wednesday.

That amount will not rock the finances of Texas Health Presbyterian of Dallas, which recorded $589 million in patient revenue last year, according to American Hospital Directory. But it suggests an expensive crackup would occur if a contagious disease outbreak in the Dallas area collided with the cost of care. The bill would likely be left on the doorstep of insured patients.

A hospital needs a certain amount of uncompensated care to qualify for their tax breaks, but ultimately this cost is covered by the margin on commercial insurance,” said Scott Schoenvogel, CEO of Compass Professional Health Services in Dallas.

Duncan was hospitalized in an isolation unit. Before his death Wednesday morning, his intensive care reportedly included dialysis and a ventilator.

Texas Health officials would not comment about Duncans medical bills.

“Our focus has been on Mr. Duncans care, not the cost, Texas Health Resources spokesman Wendell Watson wrote in an email.

In 2012, Presbyterian Dallas treated 18 Medicare patients with infectious or parasitic diseases and charged an average of $135,039 for their care.

It looks like charges are about $10,000 per day, but it is probably fair to double that for a case like Ebola, Schoenvogel said.

Duncan was in the hospital for 10 days.

Some patients are even more costly. Txpricepoint.org shows that Presbyterian charged $279,934 last year for extremely premature infants, who stayed in the hospital an average of 53 1/2 days.

Since Duncan apparently did not have health insurance, his care will likely end up as a loss for Texas Health Presbyterian of Dallas. The hospital recorded $86.5 million in uncompensated care last year, including $51.4 million in charity care, according to state data made available at Txpricepoint.org.

Steve Love, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, said he was unaware of any disaster planning that has taken into consideration the cost of care.

Generally speaking, some of these [cases] would certainly be uncompensated care. We run into that frequently in other parts of the hospital, with neonatal care units, for example,” he said. I have not seen a government program today that would reimburse for the care of an Ebola patient.

Dallas hospitals recover those losses by a practice known as cost shifting. Insured patients have a hidden surcharge in their bills, which winds up raising the cost of annual health insurance premiums for workers and their employers.

The Texas Medical Association has estimated that the cost to care for the uninsured adds $2,786 a year to the cost of a family health insurance policy.

Ok, there should be a new law.

Immigrants will not be allowed into this country that do not have healthcare coverage.

Is that asking too much?

God help us.

Didn't He create that Virus in the first place?