Yep. Such arbitrary, dual pricing is one of the biggest problems in our healthcare system.  Price transparency is virtually nonexistent, and what transparency there is is pretty much meaningless.

One simple law could fix so much of this and start to restore many of the necessary free market checks and balances -- mandatory transparent pricing and the requirement that it be adhered to.  One person being charged $11k while another is charged $3k - by the SAME PROVIDER - is outrageous and destructive to the whole system.

That doesn't mean one provider couldn't still price differently than another.  In fact that's important too, to maintain price competition to keep prices down.  But require that any single provider has to charge all of their customers (in the same market) the same price for the same service, and all this would start falling back into place.