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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992                   TAG: 9201280019
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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DOCTOR/HOSPITAL FEES ARE EXCESSIVE

WHY ARE we not addressing one of the main causes of the high costs of medical care, namely excessive doctor/hospital fees?

Last year, my wife suffered a simple fracture to her foot. The total bill for doctor's services (emergency room and orthopedic) was about $250. (Total time seen by a doctor was less than 30 minutes.)

The hospital kicked in for another $200. (I guess they wanted to charge for the five hours we had to spend in the waiting room.) Why so much? This care was neither high-tech nor exotic.

In an era when most people's standard of living is holding steady or declining, and businesses face unprecedented competition, it seems that medicine is one of the few non-competitive areas left in the business world, and some doctors charge pretty much what they want. The rest of us pay and pay for that, but many of us are tired of getting less than our money's worth. LAWRENCE R. MORGAN ROANOKE

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