FL commission begins focusing on hospital ’price gouging’

Lee Dixon wants to understand how his son's brief visit with an emergency room physician, X-rays and a cast put on the next day in an orthopedic surgeon's office means three bills totaling $5,000. The Naples resident posed the question Tuesday to Gov. Rick Scott's health care and hospital commission, which was meeting at Florida Gulf Coast University to explore what is driving up health costs and how to promote price transparency among hospitals. "To me, as a parent and a consumer, I don't know any other business where you don't have to justify costs," Dixon told the commission. "How can a cast cost $1,800?"