Now try it at a rural critical access hospital for rattlesnake antivenom with a short shelf life, so it usually expires unused. They are required by law to stock it or they cannot have their emergency room open. Estimate the revenue generated from treating the one patient who needs it every other year, and by the way, you have 9 contracted payers with different rates and you don't know which one, if any, the patient will have. Rinse and repeat for every other drug required to provide "critical care". Maybe layer on infusion of exotic chemotherapy drugs or monoclonal antibodies to treat a new pandemic virus.
So one patient every two years needs one dose of an antivenom. Charge them for the dose of antivenom. Then add up the unused stock as administrative cost and spread that over all emergency care. Simple and effective.
Do the same sort of thing for all other short-half-life things that you must keep on hand.
It doesn’t have to be hard. I get that it is complicated right now, but let’s focus on the idea that simplifying it would help everyone.
Not my area of expertise but I would bet that would get you a substantial fine from Medicare for misrepresenting your cost of care, or at least be prevented by Medicare cost reporting
Why shouldn't it be? How hard is it for a hospital to project their annual aspirin/paracetamol/? usage and budget for it?