From the July 28, 1906 NYT:

Chicago - Dr. Frank Billing's bill for attending Marshall Field during his last illness is $25,000. It was presented as a claim against the estate on Wednesday, and Probate Judge Cutting, sitting in chambers, allowed it.

The bill includes charges for day and night attendance and the time consumed in travel between Jan. 6 and Feb. 17. The claim was not contested.

In 2005 dollars, the bill is approximately $540,740 for (I think) 43 days worth of work or $12,575 per day or $209 per hour, assuming 24 hour care. Given that it seems the doc didn't work 24 hours a day, the per-hour charge would be a bit higher.

Not being a health economist, I have no basis of comparison. But would it seem unreasonable that today the last month-plus of life, given full attention, would cost much more or less than $550,000 dollars? Perhaps Mr. Field could have been saved given today's technology - I can't remember now what was exactly the cause of death - for which Mr. Field might have been willing to pay more.

If the end result is the same, $500,000 today or in 1906 makes no difference. On the other hand, if the result is different, the same nominal cost would imply a dramatically different real cost of health care.