At a time when the General Accounting Office has estimated that 99 percent of hospital bills contain overcharges, these bills have become so complicated and so lengthy that no mere mortal patient can read them or spot mistakes. Itemized bills for even brief hospitalizations run several pages and those for major surgery, like a heart bypass, can be dozens of pages.If mistakes go unnoticed, the patient or insurer can end up paying too much. In addition, health-care experts say the complicated bills make it virtually impossible for patients to compare costs at hospitals. In both ways, these bills can contribute to worsening inflation in health care."You have these incomprehensible bills with millions of little items and for each a price," said Dr. Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University. "The American hospital bill is a source of great humor in the world health economics community; people just laugh."
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