The Surprising Reason Hospitals Are Running Out of IV Fluids

Hospitals are facing an IV fluid shortage.

Thanks to a monopoly in the IV fluid industry, one company, Baxter International, produces 60% of our supply.

Hurricane Helene wiped out their largest facility, forcing doctors and nurses to ration care.
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[moreperfectunion]

Correction: The market is even more concentrated than this initial reporting. Vizient bought Intalere, meaning there is actually a Big 3 in GPOs.

[aaronrichards]

I work at a hospital and we were just given the word of the I.V. supply shortage. What an eye opening report. It seems to be very similar to the baby formula issue a few years back. This is corporate corruption pure and simple.

[teagoldleaf]

This illustrates perfectly why monopolies are dangerous.

[dvdv]

We HAVE TO stop putting profits over human lives.

IN EVERY SINGLE INDUSTRY. 😤😤😤😤

[HealingSwordsman]

The fact that no other business can fill the void makes it so you know something shady is going on.

[thrngaming]

This is what happens when corporate consolidation grows into monopolies.

[isaiahhernandez]

I worked for Baxter for a year and I will say that these people are the most dishonest and shady people I have ever come across. They only care about making the most profit possible and treat their employees like dirt. I am so happy that their greed is coming to light and others can see how crooked of an operation they run.

[PaulGoodchild_PHD]

Our politicians are paid by these groups to keep things this way. Money out of politics and back to regulations that were in place before reagan.

[margaritoamargo]

Seems as if nothing about our economy is free market. Why people continue to spread that lie around is beyond me.

[mind_of_a_darkhorse]

This is why running our healthcare for profit is a horrible idea!

[danielmarquez]

If I remember correctly they can cost as little as $0.72 cents per bag to make… yet change you up $700 dollars in the ER if used on a patient

[andycanfixit]

60% of the supply came from that NC factory, one of the other companies supplies 20% of the supply that was almost in the path of Milton, had it been hit that would have been 80% of the supply would have been gone. Baxter is the same company that had a plant in Puerto Rico that got hit 7 years ago and caused the shortage then. We saw the same issue during the pandemic with masks and other PPE, instead of having domestic suppliers, those plants were shut down and offshored, then trade halted and you had few suppliers left in the US. It's stupid how short sighted this is.

[dvdv]

Greed is not the desire for more, it's the desire for more at the expense of others.

[mariannewayne]

What isn't a mafia. It's all crooked. So sickening

[Andre-qoek]

how is ONE COMPANY doing 60% of production !?!?!

the government needs to have emergency production capability.
and this company needs to be shut down.

this GPO scheme needs to be ripped apart.

these corps are all criminal.

the government giving money to this corp is a disgusting way to support their bad behavior.

[Hathur]

Fun fact as well... IV bags on average in the US cost $1.06 to produce. Hospitals are charged at least $100 per bag. Imagine McDonalds selling hamburgers at those profit margins... a cheeseburger which has an estimated profit margin for McD is about 50% to 75% profit... if they were sold like IV bags, a cheese burger that costs McDolands roughly $1.25 to PRODUCE (not sell) would cost consumers almost $125 to buy. Lunacy.

[calhowell]

It’s almost like these types of things are inevitable when the government lets corporations play literal board games with the countries laws and commodities

[yourgodismean]

I’m in the hospital rn, and they just had to do an IV push of an IV antibiotic, instead of diluting w saline. This is rly happening. I’m just on the other edge of sepsis-safe atm but it’s the same story w the shortages during the pandemic. Keeping massive supplies around in warehouses for emergencies costs a few pennies their shareholders def want to keep in their greedy pockets

[nance]

We MUST get capitalism out of healthcare. How bad are we going to let it get?

[lolalalia]

The same thing happened after the hurricane that hit peurto rico back in 2019(?). I worked in a level 1 trauma operating room and we had to severely ration fluids given DURING SURGERY. The cost of IV fluids also went up. For a short period, there was a glitch in the hospital charting software that showed us all the prices for each item - the MSRP, insurance price, hospital price, uninsured pt price, etc. The IV fluids cost a couple dollars but the patients were charged up to $500 or more. Thise pricing variations were applied to ALL supplies. Uninsured patients are charged the HIGHEST amount out of the entire pricing table.

And the hospital i worked at was a state university hospital contracted to treat the entire prison population and uninsured/undocumented patients. So if someone goes to a private or regular hospital, despite being able to recieve care there, they will be transferred to to gov subsidize hospital via AMBULANCE transport using a private EMS service creating yet another medical bill for the patient. (I also know this to be true cuz I'm a former EMT and would transport ininsured patients between hospitals)

Also, hospitals write off unpaid medical bills as "charity" despite selling the bills to debt collectors. So they get money AND a tax write off while the patient is still stuck with the bill. (I know this cuz I'm noe disabled and uninsured 😂 'merica...)