Journalist Steven Brills ground-breaking article Bitter Pill sent shock waves through the health care industry, highlighting the glaring difference between the industrys multimillion dollar profits and the high price patients pay for basic care.

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills are Killing Us was a 36-page expose' in Time magazines March 4 issue that uncovered a world of outrageous pricing and egregious profits that exists because of a lack of competition and transparency, including consumers inability to decipher incomprehensible medical jargon.

Brills article prompted the American Hospital Association, representing more than 5,000 hospitals, to publish a three-page report defending the industry and disputing inaccurate or misleading statements in the story.

Multiple media outlets, however, said the story was a wake-up call for consumers, and Brill will bring his message to Longview next week through an appearance via video conference call service Skype.

(Patients) have giant bills that bear no relation to reality. You could conceivably ask a hospital about it. If you look at the bill, its based on nothing you would be able to understand, Brill said in a recent phone interview with the Daily News.

The author will discuss his experiences researching and writing the story and the current state of the health care industry at a public forum slated for 6 p.m. at Lower Columbia College. He will be joined by three leading members of Longviews medical community: Sy Johnson, PeaceHealths Columbia Network Chief Operating Officer; Sue Hennessey, Kaiser Permanentes vice president of strategy and health plan services; and Dian Cooper, executive director of the Family Health Center, which serves low-income patients.

The Healthcare Foundation organized the event to help consumers reduce their hospital bills, said Executive Director Mary Jane Melink.

Much of the debate over medical care focuses on who pays the bills. Brill questions why those bills are so high in the first place.

Brill said all hospitals use internal price lists called chargemasters that inflate charges for supplies and procedures to levels well above what federal Medicare pays.

The practice is not illegal, and hospitals say theyd go broke charging only what Medicare pays. Brill, however, contends the chargemasters are both the real and metaphoric essence of the broken market.

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Author of key health care expose' to discuss experience with local audience