Korean Hospitals Compete for Dialysis Patients

[geronl]

http://www.pacificbridgemedical.com/news-brief/korean-hospitals-compete-for-dialysis-patients/

January 2, 2014

Korean hospitals are competing for dialysis patients, often offering free meals, transportation to and from the hospital, and even living expenses in an effort to capture government subsidies. The Korean government pays 90 percent of all dialysis costs, an average of $1,500 per dialysis patient per month, from a total treatment bill of $1,670 per month.

Hospitals are so eager to win new patients that they sometimes — illegally — subsidize the other 10 percent of their patients’ bills, in addition to tempting them with other perks. Since 2008, the number of clinics and hospitals offering dialysis treatment in Korea has increased by 25 percent.

government-funded health-care can have some sort of competition I guess but

But of the 690 hospitals and clinics that offered dialysis services in 2013, more than 20 percent had no dialysis specialists on staff

Basically invites and begs for fraud!

[Oceander]

It's not real competition, it's arbitraging government manipulation of the economy. 

[geronl]

It's not real competition, it's arbitraging government manipulation of the economy.

exactly. This is like those dentists who send vans to the inner city to pick up kids to do cleanings and charge the taxpayers for all sorts of procedures