Is it fair that some hospitals are charging 400% above their costs to deliver services?

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According to government data, hospitals charge Medicare wildly differing amounts — sometimes 10 to 20 times what Medicare typically reimburses — for the same procedure. This raises questions about how hospitals determine prices and why they differ so widely.

Questions:
1. Discuss the data set and what was included.
2. According to the article, who are the people that are getting hit with the extremely high hospital bills?
3. What were some of the reasons that hospitals gave for the extremely high bills?
4. Based on your opinion, what was the most interesting issue in this article?MEDICAID-1-articleLarge

Source:
Meier, B., J.C. McGinty, and J. Creswell. (2013). Hospital Billing Varies Wildly, Government Data Shows, The New York Times, May 8 (Retrievable online at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/business/hospital-billing-varies-wildly-us-data-shows.html?hp&_r=1&)