US hospitals mark up medicine prices by an average 500%

Despite a narrow focus on drug spending, roughly 30% of every dollar spent on health care in the USA can be attributed to hospitals.

A new report from The Moran Company shows how hospitals are driving up costs, trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced yesterday, summarizing the main points as follow;

1. Hospitals charge 500% of what they paid for medicines, on average. For the 20 medicines that were analyzed, hospitals charged patients 234% to 724% more of what they paid for medicines.
2. Commercial payers reimbursed hospitals nearly 200% of what the hospital paid to acquire the medicine. Because patient cost sharing is often based on these markups, this practice ultimately drives up costs for patients.
3. It is estimated that 340B hospitals are reimbursed, on average, almost three times the discounted 340B price of a medicine. Nearly 60% of all hospitals in the USA participate in the 340B Drug Pricing Program, allowing them to purchase medicines at substantial discounts, but not requiring them to share these savings with patients.
4. At a time when