Small surgeries, huge markups

Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 12:00 in Health & Medicine

An $87,500 bill for a 20-minute knee procedure is just an extreme example of high amounts that insurers are billed by out-of-network surgery centers, experts say. Insurers are starting to fight back.A Southern California surgery center charged teacher Lynne Nielsen $87,500 for a routine, 20-minute knee operation that normally costs about $3,000.