Girl’s $143,000 bill for snakebite treatment reveals antivenin price gouging

[Independent voter]

Emergency treatment for a copperhead bite in a 9-year-old Indiana girl last summer cost a jaw-dropping $142,938, according to a report by Kaiser Health News. The bill includes $67,957 for four vials of antivenin. That works out to $16,989.25 for each vial—more than five times the average list price of $3,198. The bill also included $55,577.64 for air-ambulance transportation.

Crofab, like other antivenins, is made using a standard process: antivenin manufacturers milk snakes and other venomous creatures for their venom, which they then inject in small, harmless amounts into animals (in this case, sheep; in others, horses). Those animals make protective antibodies against the toxic components of venom, which are called venin. Manufacturers harvest those venin-targeting antibodies from the animals’ blood, process it, test it for quality and safety, then freeze-dry and distribute it as antivenin.

Though it’s a straightforward process, relatively few people end up needing an antivenin of any kind—less than 50,000 per year in the country. And that leads to steep prices.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019...st-you-143000/

I can see the drug manufacturer charging a lot since so few people need the antivenom each year, but the hospital is just gouging.

Should we pass a law restricting how much a hospital can charge?

[Castration]

don't get bitten by a snake... don't go to the USA..

simple

[Tommi]

Couldn't imagine being in debt for life for life saving treatments, but then again, I live in a first world country.....

[Daedius]

Solution, need a plague of Copperhead snakes.

More bites = higher demand = cheaper prices!

[Lurker1]

Dont leave the house. Easy

Oddly enought i live were rattlesnakes exist sigh... liveing in the country has its downsizes but i make decent money here and live like a king ftw!

[Tommi]

It doesnt matter where you live anti venom is fucking expensive.

I'm not sure if there are newer methods but you have to milk the same species of snake in question then inject the venom into a horse or large mammal. Then you extract their blood and take the antibodies from their blood and use those to treat the patient. And I'm simplifying the process

My point was that I wouldn't have to pay for it, the NHS would cover it.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Well considering someone has to actually milk one of these snakes, I am going to guess $143,000 isn't gouging. I wouldn't often say that, but as I said they are milking anti-venom from a snake!

[Tommi]

Like a king snake?

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The NHS wouldn't be able to provide it and youd die in agony.

They do: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/snake-bites/

The Infliximab treatments I get every 8 weeks costs the same as typical snake anti-venom.

[Lurker1]

Like a king snake?

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The NHS wouldn't be able to provide it and youd die in agony.

I live in Sc we get these mosttly eastern diamondback rattlesnakes

[jcf190]

Are there any cheap treatments for anything in the USA? My grandad was recently in the hospital for a stay and was charged 85 dollars for single tablet of tylenol (not to mention the thousands of dollars in additional treatments itemized on his bill).

[horbindr]

antivenom is a relatively expensive medicine. think you need quite specific ones for each type of bite, labor intensive to make, doesn't have a very long shelf life and often needs to be transported in a rush because it doesn't always make sense to keep supplies.

but yeah just seems like business as usual for a US hospital, don't think it's particularly related to the antivenom or anything. every time someone gets one of these huge bills i think: good advert for health insurance.

[Afrospinach]

Most snakes only bite people when they are threatened

Trouble is the snake that ends up biting you isn't most snakes.

[Rasulis]

I just want to add a footnote. Their insurance covered everything. The girl's parents did not have to pay a dime.

The air ambulance charge seems about right. That's about what we pay for one day of a skyhook for projects that require flying drilling equipment to hard to reach locations. I would expect a fully equipped & staffed air ambulance would cost the same or more. The 500% multiplier on the antivenin seems excessive. On the other hand, doctors get paid more than engineers, and I am sure the cost of running a fully staffed hospital is much higher than an engineering office.

[Nurasu]

I just want to add a footnote. Their insurance covered everything. The girl's parents did not have to pay a dime.

We'll all pay a lot more than a dime as our insurance rates continue to climb because pharmaceutical companies keep increasing their profits for shareholders with shit like this.

[Has lost its way]

I could very well be confusing this with a old wives tale but doesn't certain anti venom require the snake venom itself in the antidote? If so handling and storing those animals can not be cheap.

[Celista]

I can see the drug manufacturer charging a lot since so few people need the antivenom each year, but the hospital is just gouging.

Should we pass a law restricting how much a hospital can charge?

We absolutely should, we also need to monitor big pharma for price gouging as well. I don't think anyone is against playing a bit more for medications than simply the price of manufacturing/distributing (for a lot of reasons, but especially due to re-investment of profits into R&D) but the reality is that hospitals and big pharma execs are lining their pockets with cash while everyday people can't afford their medications. That sort of behavior is not just ethically wrong, but immoral.

[suprep]

Seeing things like this makes me glad I live somewhere where I don't have to think about healthcare at all. I'm glad the insurance paid for it though, I've read stories where they refuse to pay all of it for whatever reason.

[Rasulis]

If you get bitten by a snake you're partially responsible

Snakes swallow their prey whole. And the human eaters dont bite they constrict

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So if one of her parents gets cancer are they fucked because their premiums are through the roof?

Actually, the premium of every single policy holders is going to go up. Due to ACA, health insurance companies have to charge everybody within the same age group the same premium regardless of health.

[Mormolyce]

You know what the bill would be here in my country?

Zip.

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Actually, the premium of every single policy holders is going to go up. Due to ACA, health insurance companies have to charge everybody within the same age group the same premium regardless of health.

What's the alternative? Since the vast majority of medical expenses are incurred in the last 10 years of life or so, if they set prices according to risk it would essentially mean that insurance is cheap if you're young, but almost useless because you're unlikely to need it. So why even have it? Meanwhile for old people, who actually need it, it'd cost so much you might as well not get it and just pay for the medical treatments directly.

That's the whole point of insurance - the well pay for the sick. If the sick had to pay for themselves and the well didn't, then it would be completely useless because that's the same thing as not having insurance.

[Draco-Onis]

Actually, the premium of every single policy holders is going to go up. Due to ACA, health insurance companies have to charge everybody within the same age group the same premium regardless of health.

The ACA has been gutted by the republicans so not sure why you are still blaming it, when it was in effect premiums increased but at a lower rate than other years. I am not a fan of the ACA but it was better than what we had before now we are slowly going back to the good old days of medical bankruptcies and millions of Americans uninsured and under insured.