Importance of Pricing for Hospitals‟ Expenses from Financial and Social Perspectives

Abstract

This paper analyzes the importance of health care services‟ charging applied by hospitals in USA. The subject is examined from financial and sociological perspective. In the first step, US hospitals‟ situation is described. After that, a comprehensive literature review on Pricing Theories is presented. In the next step, problems of health care sector are investigated from a sociological perspective. In the third part of the study, pricing applications of hospitals in USA are considered. The paper has shown that strong positioned interest groups in the US health care sector pay much less than the weak positioned. As a result of weak positioning 1.7 million people in 2014 filed for bankruptcy and 35 million people were contacted by agencies for uncovered bills. Furthermore, more than 15 million people spent all their savings to cover medical bills. On the other side, 1.1 trillion USD is spent by US federal and governmental states on health issues. Moreover, hospitals are complaining about underpayment. As a solution proposal to this problem, all actors in U.S. health sector must come together to find solutions to pricing of health care services and regulations required for better organization. Keywords: pricing, health care issue, financial aspect, social peace