Maybe this will flush Eki out- $143K Hospital Bill Shocks Snake Bite Victem

[Tazio]

Chances are that the antibiotics you had 15 years ago were out of patent too since first and secondline antibiotics haven't changed much in a long time, even IV. Its only multidrug resistant infections that get newer drugs under patent.

Most drug companies do reduce their prices considerably once generic rivals come onto the market, otherwise they'd lose market share. However they do then offer a slightly different version of the patented drug, again under patent to retain profitability. For instance if antibiotic X should be taken 4 times a day then you might find that the drug company offers a long lasting one-a-day version just before the patent on the old drug expires. The new one-a-day version however will be under patent and will therefore be quite expensive compared to the now generic four-a-day predecessor.

If your hospital was giving you a generic but charging for an inflated branded price then of course that would be fraud. But then again you guys across the pond get ripped off left right and centre by the pharm companies so it wouldn't surprise me if there was something else going on.

BTW as the pharm companies see their future profitability worsening every year I'd expect more desperation from them in years to come.

Oh yes I also had a Bronchoscopy

[Tazio]

Chances are that the antibiotics you had 15 years ago were out of patent too since first and secondline antibiotics haven't changed much in a long time, even IV. Its only multidrug resistant infections that get newer drugs under patent.

Most drug companies do reduce their prices considerably once generic rivals come onto the market, otherwise they'd lose market share. However they do then offer a slightly different version of the patented drug, again under patent to retain profitability. For instance if antibiotic X should be taken 4 times a day then you might find that the drug company offers a long lasting one-a-day version just before the patent on the old drug expires. The new one-a-day version however will be under patent and will therefore be quite expensive compared to the now generic four-a-day predecessor.

If your hospital was giving you a generic but charging for an inflated branded price then of course that would be fraud. But then again you guys across the pond get ripped off left right and centre by the pharm companies so it wouldn't surprise me if there was something else going on.

BTW as the pharm companies see their future profitability worsening every year I'd expect more desperation from them in years to come.

Oh yes I also had a Bronchoscopy

Oh yes I also had a Bronchoscopy and no they were not giving me generics. I also was awaken by a Filipino nurse slapping the sh!t out of me in the middle of the night. She ejaculated: "why you blood pressure 85/45" to which I retorted "maybe because I'm sleeping"? The most obtuse charge on my bill was one tablet of Elavil "Amatryptaline" a multi use tricyclic that my osteopath had put me on to relax a lower back issue. It cost more than the liquid cocaine (a 7% solution) they used as a local they poured down one nostril when they snaked the camera down my nose with a tiny alligator snipper on it to see, and remove crystallized cucus : to loosen and extract from my lungs. That was about 15 minutes of gagging and dropping as low as 90% oxygen saturation which in a controlled environment is not too dangerous but typically you absorb over 99+% with normal lung function. I'm not exactly sure how that is calculated.

[Malbec]

Oh yes I also had a Bronchoscopy and no they were not giving me generics. I also was awaken by a Filipino nurse slapping the sh!t out of me in the middle of the night. She ejaculated: "why you blood pressure 85/45" to which I retorted "maybe because I'm sleeping"? The most obtuse charge on my bill was one tablet of Elavil "Amatryptaline" a multi use tricyclic that my osteopath had put me on to relax a lower back issue. It cost more than the liquid cocaine (a 7% solution) they used as a local they poured down one nostril when they snaked the camera down my nose with a tiny alligator snipper on it to see, and remove crystallized cucus : to loosen and extract from my lungs. That was about 15 minutes of gagging and dropping as low as 90% oxygen saturation which in a controlled environment is not too dangerous but typically you absorb over 99+% with normal lung function. I'm not exactly sure how that is calculated.

How do you know they weren't giving you generics? The drug name (not the marketing name but the pharmaceutical name) on the side of the bottle or bag would be the same for a generic and patented drug.

I'm not surprised the nurse woke you up. A diastolic blood pressure that low (whilst maybe being utterly normal for you) would require further investigation to make sure you weren't going into shock and since you describe yourself as having a significant infection at that time septic shock would have been a concern. She would have been negligent had she not woken you up and investigated further.

I don't understand why the charge for amitryptiline is obtuse. If it was an ongoing prescription that you were on prior to admission they'd carry on giving it to you unless it interfered with your treatment. Was there a reason for them not to have?

I'm surprised they used cocaine because for procedures such as a bronchoscopy it has been superceded by bupivacaine and other local anaesthetics, even 15 years ago. Pharmaceutical cocaine and morphine are much MUCH less costly than their street equivalents and are actually pretty cheap. Both are 'historical' drugs with no R/D costs to recoup and the actual cost of growing and refining the drugs is not expensive if given legal cover, the pharm companies don't have to worry about confiscated shipments, buying off officials and all the other paraphenalia that comes with illegal drug supply.

[Rudy Tamasz]

My opinion of all this? I think it stinks, and the health care industry better get it's act together and not continue to shake down its patients, or the government will do it for them.

Just tell 'em so and make sure they listen.

[Tazio]

@maybec. My bill said Elavil on it that is how I know. My referance to generics was about just going to the pharmacy for medicine in general, it had nothing to do with that trip. A hospital is not going to give you an itemized bill that said Elavil and give you the generic, plus it said Elavil on the tablet. Is that enough evidence for you? I got 5 Elavil while at the hospital and it came to 25 dollars and something. It was a long time ago. The Cocaine was $20 and something. I don't go to the pharmacy and pay that kind of money for that med. It was only 10 milligrams and I think my script was for 20 and that was less than 5 bucks generic at the pharmacy. So you can quit with your obsessive conspiracy theory

[schmenke]

Wow. We had our baby in February and the hospital bill was a big fat zero at the point of delivery (no pun intended). ....

The only out-of-pocket hospital costs we incurred during the birth of each of our kids was the daily parking fee. And I moaned about that :

[Malbec]

@maybec. My bill said Elavil on it that is how I know. My referance to generics was about just going to the pharmacy for medicine in general, it had nothing to do with that trip. A hospital is not going to give you an itemized bill that said Elavil and give you the generic, plus it said Elavil on the tablet. Is that enough evidence for you? I got 5 Elavil while at the hospital and it came to 25 dollars and something. It was a long time ago. The Cocaine was $20 and something. I don't go to the pharmacy and pay that kind of money for that med. It was only 10 milligrams and I think my script was for 20 and that was less than 5 bucks generic at the pharmacy. So you can quit with your obsessive conspiracy theory

Sorry but I don't buy into conspiracies. I'm trying to clarify what you're talking about because it sounds as if you didn't understand how/why certain things were done to you. From your post it seemed as if you were claiming that your IV antibiotics were/weren't generic.

Elavil is merely a brand name for amitryptiline. Amitryptiline is the pharmaceutical name, you can buy this from several different manufacturers who will all stamp a different name on the tablet of which elavil is one. This isn't obtuse but I agree that the difference between the pharmaceutical name and the marketing name is confusing.

Just to clarify elavil IS a generic medication as the patent on amitryptiline ran out some time in pre-history.

[Malbec]

The only out-of-pocket hospital costs we incurred during the birth of each of our kids was the daily parking fee. And I moaned about that :

Ditto. I've always wondered if people in the US and elsewhere where they pay for delivery are put off having kids because of it.

[Tazio]

Sorry but I don't buy into conspiracies. I'm trying to clarify what you're talking about because it sounds as if you didn't understand how/why certain things were done to you. From your post it seemed as if you were claiming that your IV antibiotics were/weren't generic.

Elavil is merely a brand name for amitryptiline. Amitryptiline is the pharmaceutical name, you can buy this from several different manufacturers who will all stamp a different name on the tablet of which elavil is one. This isn't obtuse but I agree that the difference between the pharmaceutical name and the marketing name is confusing.

Just to clarify elavil IS a generic medication as the patent on amitryptiline ran out some time in pre-history.

No Sh!t, I'm only 58 years old I know my way around pharmaceuticals You just can't tell when I'm being facetious, with the fake cowboy/ redneck expressions. I will say this though, at the time I told a friend that they gave me cocaine for a local and he told me no way. I showed him my itemized bill and he ate crow. I played sports at a highly competitive level until the second time I tore the same hamstring after 6 months of rehab. I could have gone to a top shelf sports medicine facility, as I had a tear so big you could almost put a tennis ball inside it. However that is elective surgery and unless you are professional making big buck you live with it, and try not to exacerbate it, and all the peripheral effect it has like making my lower back more susceptible to acute episodes That was when I was 44 over the course of time it has regenerated to a small divit, with no doubt a healthy portion of scar tissue.
BTW I have a bottle of amatriptyline sitting in front of me right now. You know what it says here in the "home of the brave" Amitrptyline sub for Elavil
ssssssssssssssaaaaaanap for the win

[Malbec]

No Sh!t, I'm only 58 years old I know my way around pharmaceuticals You just can't tell when I'm being facetious, with the fake cowboy/ redneck expressions. I will say this though, at the time I told a friend that they gave me cocaine for a local and he told me no way. I showed him my itemized bill and he ate crow. I played sports at a highly competitive level until the second time I tore the same hamstring after 6 months of rehab. I could have gone to a top shelf sports medicine facility, as I had a tear so big you could almost put a tennis ball inside it. However that is elective surgery and unless you are professional making big buck you live with it, and try not to exacerbate it, and all the peripheral effect it has like making my lower back more susceptible to acute episodes

I'm not posting here to insult you but what you're saying doesn't make sense.

You said yourself you were prescribed Elavil and that you weren't palmed off with a generic drug:

A hospital is not going to give you an itemized bill that said Elavil and give you the generic, plus it said Elavil on the tablet. Is that enough evidence for you?

Elavil IS a generic drug. The patent on amitryptiline ran out in the mid-70s.

I suspect the root problem here is that there are crossed wires. For me, a generic drug is any drug that is not still under patent. Most bread and butter drugs ARE generic.

Elavil may be marketed by Merck, the company that developed the drug back in the '50s but the medication would be produced VERY cheaply by ACME corp somewhere in India/China with the same supplier producing the drug for several different companies, ie once you get beyond the title on the packet it is a generic.