Sorry but another healthcare costs rant acomin'...

Sorry for Predicting!

Seriously though, the reason it is a little funny is because there is a big grain of truth to it. There are many hands grabbing into a pot of potential cash trying to get as much of it as they can while trying to remain as concealed as possible and maintaining the tiniest bit of plausible deniability to be able to say "sorry, it's not MY fault." But it is. It definitely is the fault of all of them.

This is anathema to all the free market fundamentalists, but this is an area where we all would be better off taking the idea of making a profit out of the equation altogether.

It's also anathema to the "less government/less regulations" ideologues but it's also an area that would benefit from strict regulations on pricing and the requirement that all prices be public and agreed to up front, as well as regulations regarding providers owning and operating side ventures (like the facility you mentioned, or imaging facilities, or other profit-making ventures) that get business steered to them by the very doctors who own them.