Survey finds high fees common in medical care

A New Jersey patient being charged $72,000 for a spinal fusion procedure that Medicare covers for $1,629 was one of the findings in a survey sponsored by America's Health Insurance Plans in which insurers were asked for some of the highest bills submitted to them in 2008. The group said it had no data on the frequency of such high fees, saying that to its knowledge no one had studied that. But it said it did the survey in part to defend against efforts by the Obama administration to portray certain industry practices as a major part of the nation's healthcare problems.