In addition to working at Blue Cross, I was previously the Collection Manager at a 1000 bed public teaching hospital. It is a fallicy that all hospitals are getting rich, in fact many community facilities are closing or being sold to other facilities. Part of it is location and demographics, if you are serving a poor community where people are uninsured or underinsured you will have a hard time making ends meet.
While a hospital bill may say a procedure costs $10,000, look at what they are actually reimbursed. Hospitals competing for a very limited patient pool for new and expensive tests and procedures are a major cost driver. No one wants to be left behind in the technology race.
