The bill from my recent hospitalization is pretty easy to read. I damn sure didn't get an MRI as cheap as the US figure in the article tho.
smh...
“We’ve been trying to help patients get good value, but it is really hard to get price commitments from hospitals — we see this all the time,” said Jeff Rice, the chief executive of Healthcare Blue Book, a company that collects data on medical procedures, doctors visits and tests. “And even if they say $20,000, it often turns out $40,000 or 60,000.”
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/0...s-are-stumped/
Go Massachusetts and New Hampshire, my two childhood locales! Woohoo!
They scored higher after getting your sick ass out of there.
Lots of factors change the price quite a bit unfortunately.
I protested the "Agloco Cheeseburger Fee".
I protested the "Agloco Cheeseburger Fee".
After all, Agloco and his ilk must eat. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Also funny since getting scanned in a "big boy" MRI is likely to run you extra as well since most places will have to outsource the scan. Quite shameful really.
It used to be that if you were running a fever you had three options. You could stay home, wait for a doctor’s appointment, or take your chances with a local hospital’s emergency department. About a decade ago, three Minnesota entrepreneurs came up with a fourth option: a walk-in clinic that would provide fast, inexpensive care for simple ailments. CVS Caremark bought them in 2006, and these days there is probably a MinuteClinic not far from you.
Retail clinics like MinuteClinic offer patients convenience and clearly-posted prices. They treat only basic conditions and primarily serve customers who have health insurances. But the clinics are a practical way to address the big question that continues to bedevil the American health-care system: How can we provide more care at a lower cost?
The rapid expansion of walk-in clinics—there are now approximately 1,400 retail clinics around the United States—could have consequences for the larger health-care industry. “These fairly low-cost services are forcing responsiveness by the entire provider community around patient convenience,” says Tom Charland, CEO of the research and consulting firm Merchant Medicine.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-...ritos-20130321Care at a retail clinic “is about 30 to 40 percent cheaper on a per-visit basis than care at a doctor’s office, and 80 percent lower, on average, than the care at an emergency department visit,” says Ateev Mehrota, policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. A flu shot given by a nurse is cheaper than one given by a doctor, even though it’s the same injection.
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...e-isnt-a-crowdIn recent years, a growing number of doctors have begun holding group appointments -- seeing up to a dozen patients with similar medical concerns all at once. Advocates of the approach say such visits allow doctors to treat more patients, spend more time with them (even if not one-on-one), increase appointment availability and improve health outcomes.
both articles via The Dish
never see anything like that at "fox news".
Just sayin'.
The OP was freaking awesome.
I have a meeting with an HMO CEO coming up, this makes for good background material to ask about. Thank you.
There are some awesome links in this article.
An End to Medical-Billing Secrecy?
http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08...lling-secrecy/
Here's the gov link: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statisti...ata/index.html
And here's a couple of searchable databases built off of the above:
http://ovrcharge.com/
http://www.hospitalowl.com/
Bam, more background material.
BigPharma has hired US govt as policeman/confiscator of BigPharma's drugs imported from cheaper countries.
As Drug Costs Rise, Bending the Law Is One Remedy
Lee Higman, a 71-year-old artist from Bellevue, Idaho, who considers herself a law-abiding citizen, was shocked last month when she got a notice from the Food and Drug Administration telling her: “A mail shipment addressed to you from a foreign country is being held.”
The 90 tablets of Vagifem, prescribed by her physician, that she had ordered from a Canadian pharmacy had been impounded as an illegal drug at Los Angeles International Airport.
First marketed in 1988, Vagifem estrogen tablets are used by millions of women to relieve symptoms of menopause. There is no generic version available in the United States, and brand-name drugs are expensive here. So about five years ago, Mrs. Higman started ordering the tablets from Canada, where a year’s supply that would cost about $1,000 in the United States sells for under $100.
...
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/23...ne-remedy.html
Last edited by boutons_deux; 10-23-2013 at 10:44 AM.
And the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue.
After all the care the author takes to get an answer to a straightforward question he then uses an oversimplified, possibly disingenuous question like the above...
I found this very strange.
The read is quite good though.
"oversimplified, possibly disingenuous question"
it's the KEY question, and the answer is NO, which has caused a huge percentage of doctors to arrive at burn-out. Too much time on chasing money to pay off $100K in college loans, flipping patients quickly, and not enough time on their student-days goal of practicing medicine.
What are the appropriate needs of each patient Dr. Buffoon? With more tests arising every week from medical technology which tests should and should not be run? Which are too expensive and way overdoing it and which are not?
Oh so you did NOT run this test, and now the patient needs a more expensive surgery... And you did not run the test because you thought it was excessive and expensive, so, you missed the diagnosis Dr. Buffoon.
But its easy for Dr. Boutons err.. Buffoon. Obviously there are clear cut cases, but there are many that are not. But it's all so black and white for the ideologue.
Boutons will write the protocol for each patient based on information from the patient and the past medical history from each patient. Because it's all so easy to get and so easy to decide exactly which tests to run. We await your AMA manual Dr. Boutons.
And this is only one problem...
Last edited by pgardn; 10-23-2013 at 02:41 PM.
Buffoon, you assume every new test available is useful AND better than existing tests. Not the case, and is well known not to be the case with patented drugs (eg, generic metformin vs new patented replacements)
defensive medicine is part of the problem
but cost and revenue pressures dominate in FOR-PROFIT health care
some doctors have quit private practice to join clinics and hospitals, only to find mgmt considers them not to be doctors, but revenue centers will all the revenue pressure of private practice.
If you give patients an itemized list including cost of procedures and include them in the decision making process ot that extent it would transfer a great deal more responsibility to the patient. That is the thing that annoys me, the manner that they charge creates an environment where they should be responsible yet they try and legislate away their liability.
Totally agree.
But we again run up against the patient, especially in Medicare and Medicaid, who does not have any idea what they need. And then we find ourselves back to the age old problem of individual responsibility. It has always been assumed that the patient will not understand what tests they need. And requiring a doctor to explain it... Then they can't see massive number of patients they need for the million dollar mortgage and country club dues (Boutons rendition)
The government actually has made some cuts to tests some doctors think are necessary therefore they will not take patients in those programs, especially Medicaid, as they will not have any supplemental insurance.
This is a real mess. The boomers are old. The problem gets bigger.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
