美国医疗骗局震碎三观！痛失亲人的家属靠 AI 砍价 16 万，4 小时重症监护竟收 19.5 万美元？

@nthmonkey（当事人）
The hospital is outrageous! They charged for the master procedure once, and actually charged separately for each component service—it's simply daylight robbery. If Claude hadn't helped me analyze the codes line by line, these tricks would have never been discovered. Losing a loved one is painful enough, but we also have to fight against the hospital's fraudulent tactics. Is this the current state of American healthcare?

医院太离谱了！主手术费用收了一次，居然把每个组件服务又单独收费一遍，简直是明抢。要不是 Claude  AI 帮我逐行分析收费代码，这些猫腻根本发现不了。亲人离世已经够悲痛了，还要跟医院的欺诈套路斗智斗勇，这就是美国的医疗现状？
 
@justgetoffmylawn
This is the absolutely bonkers part. Only Americans think, "OMG, they saved $170k!" Everyone else is like, "WTF, they charged someone $30k to die? Because they paid for 'insurance' their whole life but let it lapse two months before they died?" When you're dying, your first concern should be a prior authorization for that death, and make sure your premiums are paid up for at least 18 months after your expected departure from the plane of existence.

这才是最疯狂的地方！只有美国人才会觉得 “省了17万美元” 是胜利，正常人都在想：“什么鬼？人死了还要收3万美元？一辈子交保险，偏偏去世前两个月失效就被往死里宰？” 临终前居然还要先拿到 “死亡预授权”，确保保费交够死后18个月，这是什么离谱操作？

@Several_Lemon_1127
$33000 USD is NOT reasonable at all!!! US's health system is hell. Four hours of emergency care for a loved one shouldn't cost this much. If we had known the price beforehand, maybe the family would have chosen to give up treatment—it's not saving people, it's taking advantage of a crisis.

3.3万美元一点也不合理！美国的医疗系统就是地狱。亲人抢救4小时就要这么多钱，要是早知道价格，说不定家属都会选择放弃治疗 —— 这根本不是救人，是趁火打劫。

@the_last_0ne
Yep, they just get away with it. Keep in mind this is probably because of screwups on the providers part, not the insurance company. But there's no penalty for billing things incorrectly even when its egregious (like, being billed for a procedure that wasn't even done, or for supplies they didn't use). So why would they care to get it right?

医院就这么明目张胆，啥事没有！就算账单错得离谱，比如收了没做的手术费、没用到的耗材费，也没有任何惩罚。反正大多数人要么没时间核对，要么被悲痛冲昏头脑直接付钱，他们何乐而不为？

@Responsible-Room-645
This is terrific but in a real developed country the bill would be zero and they wouldn’t have to do anything. America's so-called "healthcare freedom" is only a privilege for the rich; ordinary people can only be at the mercy of hospitals.
这事儿放在真正的发达国家根本不会发生，账单早就是0了，哪用得着跟医院扯皮？美国所谓的 “医疗自由”，不过是富人的特权，普通人只能任由医院宰割。

@aitorbk
Looks both like a good use of an ai agent and also like fraud. Why can hospitals commit fraud daily and when called about said fraud say "well, my bad, it was actually mostly fraudulent charges, here, have this also too big bill". There should be penal consequences.

这分明就是欺诈！医院天天干这种勾当，被发现了就轻飘飘说一句 “算错了”，换个 “依然离谱的账单” 就完事。这种行为就该重罚，罚款金额至少要等于多收的费用，不然根本起不到震慑作用。

@JMS_jr
I've become convinced that they just make up charges in the hope that people will pay them without questioning. (This is not at all a new observation: "Doctors steal and here's the bill", Devo, Speed Racer, 1982)
我早就发现了，医院就是故意编假费用，赌的就是人们不会仔细核对。就像1982年就有人吐槽 “医生偷钱，账单为证”，这么多年过去，美国医疗的贪婪一点没改。

@liquidgrill
We were overcharged by $10,000 for the birth of our daughter. I asked for an itemized bill and uncovered 14 blatantly made up charges……trips to the nursery that never happened etc. They even charged us $75 for 3 days worth of those awful slipper things they put in the drawer that my wife never touched. When I called the insurance company to tell them that we, and they, were getting ripped off, they said that there’s nothing they could do on their end and I’d have to call and dispute it. The only reason we were able to make the charges go away was because my wife happened to be friends with a well-known local tv anchor. We had her call the hospital and ask about the bill as part of one of her “investigations.”

我女儿出生时被多收了1万美元！我要求明细账单后，发现14项费用都是编的 —— 比如根本没去过的婴儿房收费、我妻子碰都没碰过的拖鞋居然收75美元。要不是我妻子认识本地电视台主播，让她帮忙 “调查”，这笔钱根本要不回来。后来才知道，这家医院一直系统性地给产妇和急诊病人虚增账单。

@rot26encrypt
My grandfather needed to get a surgery on his arm. Since it wasn't essential for him to live, they refused to do the surgery unless he paid the full $10,000 up front. So of course he paid because he felt it was essential and he could get his money back after the insurance paid. Well the surgery happened and his insurance paid for all of it. My grandpa went to the hospital to try to get the money that he gave them back and they might as well have told him to get bent. They said that the $10,000 was not refundable but that they would use it as a "credit" to pay for any future visits. Any reasonable person would know that 10 grand isn't an amount of money that normal people can just go without, nor did he have any way of knowing if he would use $10,000 worth of services at that hospital in the future.

我爷爷要做手臂手术，医院说不是救命手术，必须先付1万美元全款才给做。爷爷付了钱，结果保险后来全额报销了，医院却死活不退那1万美元，只说可以留作 “后续就诊抵扣额度”。我们来回沟通了8个月都没用，这分明就是抢劫！普通人要是偷医院1万美元肯定要坐牢，医院抢普通人的钱却没人管，美国的腐败真是深入骨髓。

@floog
I've been stuck with a nearly $3,000 surgery bill for months. I've asked the healthcare provider multiple times for an itemized bill. It just says "$2,800 - Dr. (his name)" but nothing else. Is the anesthesiologist in this? Room fees? Nursing? etc. They keep saying we texted it to you as well. Yeah, a text that said I owe $2,800, send me an itemized invoice so I can make sure that this is the end of the billing. Because we both know the second I pay it I will receive two more bills 4 months after the surgery. It's a stupid game we have to play in this country for healthcare.

我有个3000美元的手术账单，要求医院发明细，结果只写着 “某医生2800美元”，其他啥都没有。我追问麻醉费、护理费在哪，他们就扯一堆废话，说账单已经发给我了。谁都清楚，我这一付完，术后四个月指定还会再来两张账单，这就是美国医疗的愚蠢游戏。

@doneandtired2014
No wonder people go bankrupt in the states for medical issues when you're straight up getting robbed. I saw many people from Canada say "ask for an itemized bill" and the hospital immediately panics and the cost drops by 90%. It's obvious that American hospitals are guilty—they just bully people who are too lazy to fight back, scamming as many as they can.

难怪美国人会因为医疗账单破产，这根本就是明抢！看到加拿大网友说 “要求明细账单，医院立马就怂，费用直接降90%”，就知道美国医院有多心虚 —— 他们就是欺负人懒得维权，能骗一个是一个。

@anothergothchick
This is the most American headline of all time. You have AI, an abusive healthcare system, and the final result is supposed to make you think, "wow, $33,000 is so much better!" When you should be thinking HOW THE FUCK IS ANY OF THIS ACCEPTABLE IN THIS COUNTRY. WAKE THE FUCK UP

这绝对是史上最美国的头条！有AI、有滥用职权的医疗系统，结果居然有人觉得 “3.3 万美元好太多了”？正常人都该愤怒：这种事怎么能被容忍？快醒醒吧！

@hollmarck
The wildest part about this is that 33k is being frxd as a win. A FAMILY MEMBER DIED and they still owe $33,000. In any functional society, this would be free. Everyone should be using AI to audit their medical bills at this point. The hospitals are literally banking on people being too overwhelmed by grief or complexity to fight back. Its systematic fraud at scale.
最离谱的是，3.3万美元居然被当成 “胜利” 来宣传。家人都去世了，还欠医院3.3万美元，这在任何正常社会都该是免费的。现在大家居然要靠 AI 来审计医疗账单，医院就是指望人们被悲痛或账单的复杂性压垮，不敢反抗，这就是大规模的系统性欺诈。

@Greatgrandma2023
Even $33k is far too expensive for many Americans. We need comprehensive health care cost reform. Even if we don't get universal healthcare there is a need to streamline and eliminate the for-profit model. American healthcare is rotten to the core, and the so-called "billing errors" are completely intentional.

就算是3.3万美元，对很多美国人来说也付不起。我们需要全面的医疗成本改革，就算搞不了全民医保，也该取消这种唯利是图的模式。美国医疗已经烂到根了，所谓的 “账单错误” 根本就是故意的。

@photon_watts
Not exactly the same thing, but I was charged over $700 for a biopsy needle that retails online for $12. The NY Attorney General’s Office said that there’s nothing anyone can do about that. They can charge WHATEVER they want. Healthcare in this country is so fucked.

我做活检时，医院收了我700多美元的活检针费用，结果网上零售价才12美元！我找纽约州司法部投诉，他们说对此无能为力，医院想收多少就收多少。美国的医疗真的太离谱了。

@NebulousNitrate
My girlfriend had no insurance before we got married, and her doctor's appointments were usually no more than $100. I have really good insurance, but a relatively high deductible. After we got married, suddenly she started getting charged over $1100 per visit. Granted the last one included a blood draw, but it's fucking insane. It was like $800 for the visit itself, and then $300 for the lab. When we asked the doctor he said he had no knowledge of billing and told us to contact the hospital billing department. We contacted them and they said it was because we were now using insurance... wtf?

我女朋友婚前没保险，看医生每次费用不超过100美元；我们结婚后用我的保险，她每次就诊居然要1100多美元 —— 其中一次就抽了个血，就诊费800美元，化验费300美元。问医生，医生说不管账单；问医院，医院说因为我们用了保险，要按最高额度收费；问保险公司，保险公司说这是 “好保险的常规操作”。最后我们投诉，医院随便抹掉300美元 “费用”，还说不出这300美元是啥 —— 这根本就是随口定价，不投诉就被全额宰。

@Michael-Hayssus
As a Canadian I’m just like “what’s a hospital bill?”. I still find it crazy that many Americans think this is a better way to do healthcare. Having a loved one pass away and still being ripped off by the hospital is simply inhumane.

作为加拿大人，我只想问：“医院账单是什么东西？” 真的无法理解，居然有美国人觉得这种医疗模式更好。亲人去世还要被医院扒一层皮，这简直是反人类。

@downbytheriver12345
It's hilarious this is considered a "win" ... to anyone not living in the USA the premise is flawed... A $33,000 hospital bill? wtf lol

这事儿被当成 “胜利” 真的太搞笑了！对不在美国的人来说，3.3万美元的医院账单本身就离谱到荒谬，这哪里是医疗，分明是抢钱。

@Secret_Account07
Why is this not illegal? I need to use AI for medical professionals to do their jobs? That’s like if I bought a car and got charged for 2. How would that not be fraud?

为什么这不是违法的？我居然需要用 AI 来监督医疗专业人员做好本职工作？这就像我买了一辆车，却被收了两辆车的钱，这怎么看都是欺诈吧？

@adunedarkguard
“coolly reducing the bill to a far more reasonable $33,000.” In what world is a hospital bill for $33,000 reasonable? I don't understand how Americans don't leave their country for a better nation.

在哪个世界里，3.3万美元的医院账单是 “合理” 的？我真搞不懂美国人为什么不离开这个国家，去一个医疗正常点的地方生活。

@unamity1
medical fraud is bankrupting our country! it's not the illegal immigrants. Hospitals and insurance companies collude to defraud people with fake bills every day, but no one stops them.

是医疗欺诈让我们国家破产的，不是非法移民！医院和保险公司相互勾结，天天靠虚增账单骗钱，却没人管。

@Square-Exercise5257
I was in a work place accident where I ended up in ER (almost the morgue) after an ambulance trip underwent emergency surgery to reconstruct my head then recovery and a few weeks after that my partner had our first baby and it didn’t cost a cent!! Some Aussies whinge about our government but at least the healthcare system is working! Healthcare should be free.

我在工作中受伤，被救护车送进急诊，还做了头部重建手术，后来我伴侣还生了我们第一个孩子，这一切一分钱都没花！有些澳大利亚人会抱怨政府，但至少我们的医疗系统是有用的 —— 医疗就该是免费的。

@Bradcst3r
Wow, Americans and their health care system is nuts that they even have to do this. Another reason why I'll never go there again. Health care, for any first world country, should be a public right.

美国人居然要靠 AI 来砍医疗账单，这简直疯了。任何发达国家的医疗都该是公民的基本权利，这就是我再也不想去美国的原因。

@ahaeker
Dang, maybe I should try that. Had a surgery that was supposed to be fully covered & the hospital kept billing me & threatening to send me to collections. The only reason the bills stopped is because I kept leaving 1-star reviews on Google. I got nowhere with insurance or the hospital, I swear they're all in cahoots!

我之前做了个手术，保险说全额覆盖，结果医院一直给我寄账单，还威胁要把我列入失信名单。我找保险和医院都没用，最后在谷歌给他们打了一堆一星差评，账单居然就停了 —— 真不敢相信，维权还要靠这种方式，他们分明就是串通好的！

@mytyan
This is deliberate fraud. People need to go to jail. The entire American healthcare system is a scam; they do this to all patients. It's the only country in the world where people go bankrupt because of medical bills.

这就是故意欺诈，相关人员都该坐牢！整个美国医疗系统就是个骗局，他们对所有患者都这么干，这是唯一一个人们会因为看病破产的国家。

@SG_wormsblx
Yes over-billing is extremely common so the insurance company can claim they saved you so much money and you should continue paying them absurd premiums (I heard it’s several thousand USD per year?). While in the backrooms they negotiate actual payment down to a mere fraction just like what happened here. They never tell you what they actually paid, just what you “saved” compared to the original bill.

过度收费在美国太常见了，保险公司和医院串通一气：医院开天价账单，保险公司 “砍价” 后收取高额保费，还骗你说 “帮你省了很多钱”，却从不告诉你他们实际付了多少。这就是个针对普通人的骗局。

@QueenPersephone1024
US healthcare should be considered a humanitarian crisis! In the richest country in human history, someone has to pay $195,000 for 4 hours of intensive care—it's simply a disgrace.

美国医疗根本就是人道主义危机！在人类历史上最富有的国家，居然有人要为4小时的重症监护付19.5万美元，这简直是耻辱。

@queenringlets
This is ridiculous, the hospital should be investigated for all its billing. I guarantee similar fraud would be found. They are probably hosing the public out of millions.

这太荒谬了，这家医院的所有账单都该被调查！我敢保证还能发现更多欺诈行为，他们可能已经骗了公众数百万美元。

@Stickel
take a step back and apply it to the entire health care system and replace millions with billions and you have the US healthcare system—operated by greed and fraud.

把这个数字放大到整个医疗系统，把数百万换成数十亿美元，这就是美国医疗的真相 —— 靠欺诈和贪婪运作。

@Horror_Chocolate2990
The rest of the world asks AI why there's a bill from a hospital at all. Billing doesn't need transparency, humans have a basic right to free healthcare. Americans seem to be so obsessed with earning and deserving healthcare they forget that everyone else in the world gets it free or near free but them. This whole story makes me sick..

世界其他地方的人都会问：“为什么医院会开账单？” 账单根本不需要什么透明度，人类有免费医疗的基本权利。美国人痴迷于 “赚钱换医疗”，却忘了世界上其他地方的人都能免费或几乎免费看病，这事儿真的让我恶心。

@Niceguy955
Finally a good use for AI. Hazarding a guess that hospitals also use AI to write these bills, so pretty soon it's going to become an AI war—but the worst off are ordinary patients, caught in the middle of the chaos.

终于发现 AI 的正经用途了！我猜医院也是用 AI 来编假账单的，很快就会变成 AI 对 AI 的战争 —— 但最惨的还是普通患者，夹在中间被两头折腾。

@blobbilby
AI tech bro oligarchs vs “health””care” CEO parasites. I’d love this fight but I’d bet the few nickels I have that In a few months we are going to see some scumbag congressman like Mike Lee of Utah proposing a bill that limits AI usage on insurance claims and bills. You know, to protect the kids or some shit.

AI 科技巨头对决医疗行业寄生虫，这场斗争我可太想看了！但我敢打赌，几个月后就会有混蛋国会议员提案限制 AI 审查医疗账单，美其名曰 “保护消费者”，其实就是帮医院和保险公司维护既得利益。

@CHSummers
$33,000 for four hours of services. After cutting the bill with AI. When you consider that patients are not in a position to shop around at all when someone has a heart attack, pretending this is some kind of free market is insane (or just greedy).

用 AI 砍完价还收3.3万美元，就4小时的服务！心脏病发作的患者根本没机会货比三家，还说这是 “自由市场”，要么是疯了，要么就是纯粹的贪婪。

@IkaluNappa
I did something similar with my ongoing (ugh) billing dispute with a predatory hospital. So far, I’ve caught them duplicating billing items, over coding, perform a non emergency test against my explicit non consent, gross internal billing inconsistencies (I get widely different numbers. The most extreme is $3000+ different on one item), extreme price gauging (average is 10x local price), to name a few.

我也在和一家掠夺性医院扯皮账单，目前已经发现他们重复收费、过度编码、未经我同意做非急诊检查、内部账单数据矛盾（同一个项目，价格差居然能到3000多美元）、漫天要价（平均是当地价格的10倍）。现在他们拒绝和我邮件沟通，怕留下书面证据，还拒绝免费提供我的病历 —— 这居然是合法的！最后还是托医生帮忙才拿到病历，美国医疗的黑暗真的超出想象。

@robertsij
Last time I went to the hospital they literally billed us 500 dollars for the chair that my dad was sitting on while he waited with me in the hospital room. Ridiculous

上次我去医院，我爸在病房陪我坐着，医院居然收了我500美元的 “座椅使用费”，这简直荒谬到极点！

@themachduck
Im reposting my comment because everyone is missing this point: They wouldn't owe anything. If he dies, the bill goes with him. How come no one is pointing this out? You don't have co-signers at a hospital. This whole thing smells sketchy, or the family is really that dumb to think they would be the ones to pay.

最关键的点没人提：患者去世后，账单就该跟着失效，家属根本不欠这笔钱！医院里又没有联名担保人，这家人要么是被骗了，要么就是太傻，居然真的去付钱。这可是成年人，就算有医疗债务，人死后也该一笔勾销，这事儿从头到尾都透着诡异。

@pennyx2
His estate would owe for his care. That’s money his family would likely inherit. So the family has a financial interest in making sure the estate is not over-billed—but that's not the point. The point is why the hospital is allowed to issue such an outrageous bill?

死者的遗产要承担这笔费用，而遗产本来是要留给家人的，所以家属才会较真账单有没有虚高 —— 但这根本不是重点，重点是医院凭什么开这么离谱的账单？

@xSlappy-   Also a feel good story being a family owing $33,000 for medical care

还有一个让人感到温暖的故事，一家人欠了3.3万美元的医疗费用。

PS： 也有人怀疑这篇报道是 Claude AI 的软广，目前虽无实锤，但从网友们如此激烈的反应也能看出，美国医疗的乱象本就真实存在。