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Show HN: I mapped US medical prices. Save thousands by driving a few miles

bestmedicareprice.com

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Re: Show HN: I mapped US medical prices. Save thousands by driving a few miles

#101

Post by jeanlucneptune »

hotloo wrote: post #99
jeanlucneptune wrote: post #83

Assuming this data is from the Medicare (insurance program for those >65) dataset released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services earlier this year ( http://go.cms.gov/1bowKJA ) I have a couple of points to make: 1.) Not sure if you grabbed "charges" or "payments", but "charges" are what the providers (hospitals) billed to Medicare, and "payments" are what Medicare actually paid the providers. "Payments" w…

Nice! Me and my friend made this app back in a few weeks ago, and here is the link. http://pricemaps.betterdoctor.com/#/ 1. We used the 'Average Payment' for the actual number shown on the site. 2. Even though it's irrelevant, but it actually goes back to you by your co-pay and other expenses to you. Not 100% sure though. The point in our app is that, we want to compare the price vs quality in the US top hospitals. T…

I like the betterdoctor price maps! Too bad you didn't have a chance to enter our competition, because you might have been a winner. By point:

1.) Good choice 2.) You need to consider co-pays as well as allowable charges, deductibles, co-insurance (if applicable), and benefit maximums. 2b.) The quality data out there sucks (hard to measure quality in HC) and is hard to find. 3.) Cool 4.) Ibid 5.) Clever

HC now is like the internet in the early 90s. Huge opportunities that will hopefully attract talented developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs.

Re: Show HN: I mapped US medical prices. Save thousands by driving a few miles

#102

Post by ulfw »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #93

This is cute, but it is based on a flawed premise. There are not "prices" for medical procedures and even the providers don't know what they are going to charge. Anecdata: when my wife was pregnant I asked the hospital what are the basic charges for normal obstetric delivery, since we were paying out of pocket. I got a reply in writing that it was $20k, a suspiciously round number without itemization. The baby comes…

WOW just wow. Would have been cheaper to fly first class to any other country in the world and get the baby there. It's really time for significant overhaul of the health care system here in the US

Re: Show HN: I mapped US medical prices. Save thousands by driving a few miles

#106

Post by gaadd33 »

frenchman_in_ny wrote: post #97
randall wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ER visits. Seriously. An ER is required by law to treat anyone who comes in. If you really can't pay, go to the ER. Some argue this is why healthcare costs so much because ERs have to be paid for.

No. This is wrong, yet people keep citing this. EMTALA [0] requires the hospital to stabilize the patient, ie, make it so that it is no longer an emergency (the "E" in "ER"). If you "really can't pay" and it's not an emergency, you likely will find yourself in collections from the hospital. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and...

So if you go and say you are seizing, they will just stabilize you till you are done seizing then kick you out? Or at that point they will attempt to collect for the emergency care and prohibit further care until you can prove you can pay for it?

Re: Show HN: I mapped US medical prices. Save thousands by driving a few miles

#108

Post by neilsharma »

jonmrodriguez wrote: post #96
jonmrodriguez wrote: post #94

I don't know if I'm just completely retarded or hitting a bug. How do I use the "Select a Procedure..." box? Typing into it does nothing. If I click on the box (or the down triangle), it brings up a menu with only one option, which says "Select a Procedure..." and does nothing. This is on Chrome on Windows. I'm in Los Angeles, if that matters.

Oh it might be this syntax error on line 21 of index.js: Is: query.ascending)( Presumably should be: query.ascending();

oh sorry, I must've introduce that error when fixing other things. Thanks for the notice.

Re: Show HN: I mapped US medical prices. Save thousands by driving a few miles

#109

Post by Splendor »

MJR wrote: post #75

These are called cost and quality or transparency tools in the industry. Many insurance companies have tools that can do this exact thing for their members AND apply it to your specific plan at the time of the inquiry. So you can choose based on the procedure cost and your actual cost based on your deductible and co-insurance. Not only that, the tools will also tell you about quality so you can compare based on the q…

Additionally, you only have access to negotiated rates for Medicare whereas an insurance company providing this information is going to provide as much information as they can for all of their members by displaying their negotiated rates specific to your plan.

This is important. Contracted network discounts may not align with Medicare reimbursement rates for providers so if you have insurance through a network you should look for a tool that can compare in-network rates for your plan as MJR suggests.

Re: Show HN: I mapped US medical prices. Save thousands by driving a few miles

#110

Post by Splendor »

benmathes wrote: post #74

Incredibly useful if you're on medicare (what the price data is based on). For the majority of us _not_ on medicare, castlighthealth.com is solving this. It's B2B for now, i.e. Tesla pays for castlight and then its employees can use castlight to find out how much things will cost.

I just met with Castlight this week. They have a really slick tool. Other companies like Change Healthcare and Healthcare Blue Book are trying to solve the problem too (with their own B2B solutions).
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