Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

cjr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 121 posts

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#101

Post by HeadsUpHigh »

rdtsc wrote: post #68
outworlder wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an abdominal ultrassound, because some of my bloodwork was off and the doctor wanted to confirmed my liver was ok. Very routine. So I agreed. 15 minutes from the time I got to the reception desk to the time I was out of the door. Hospital billed $6000 (already negotiated down with insurance). Insurance paid around $4000. They wanted me to pony up 2k. Told no. Went to collections, negotiated to just under 1000.…

Ultrasound is a quick and relatively simple procedure. They could get a few in the ER and a few technicians on staff. Then doctors are encouraged to say bloodwork is off let's do an ultrasound and there you have it - $4k / 25 minutes. Bill the insurance and keep raking in the money. Normally I'd say that's far fetched but after having relatives advised to get unnecessary surgery I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm not sure what you mean by the doctors being encouraged but unless the doctor ordering the U/S is getting a cut then there is no direct incentive. But I don't know how your system works so I might be wrong.

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#103

Post by dang »

shawn wrote: post #100

Actually, when you do things a community member disagrees with, you ban them and say they aren’t really a part of the community. The front page ranking is determined entirely by you. The comment ranking isn't far behind. Credit where credit is due.

None of that is true.

Since you either can't or won't stop posting like this, we're not going to unban you after three months, because clearly this problem is just continuing. But if you can go three months without posting any abusive, off-topic, meta comments, we'll consider it. In the meantime, we're continuing to unkill good comments that you post, if the community hasn't vouched for them first.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18289284 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#104

Post by mrguyorama »

HeadsUpHigh wrote: post #101
rdtsc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultrasound is a quick and relatively simple procedure. They could get a few in the ER and a few technicians on staff. Then doctors are encouraged to say bloodwork is off let's do an ultrasound and there you have it - $4k / 25 minutes. Bill the insurance and keep raking in the money. Normally I'd say that's far fetched but after having relatives advised to get unnecessary surgery I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm not sure what you mean by the doctors being encouraged but unless the doctor ordering the U/S is getting a cut then there is no direct incentive. But I don't know how your system works so I might be wrong.

Do you not understand that doctors have levels of management above them? Their incentive could be "Boss wants me to encourage them for X reasons"

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#105

Post by astrodust »

maxxxxx wrote: post #52
astrodust wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like 40% of Americans already receive "government health care" in some form or other. Any government employees, military, police, teachers, fire fighters, and so on, receive health care. Anyone who qualifies for Medicare does. Just push that number to 100%.

The funny thing is that a lot of Medicare recipients or soldiers are adamantly against "socialism" in the form of government healthcare.

Fox News is a dangerous drug.

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#106

Post by LeftTurnSignal »

esotericn wrote: post #93

The practices espoused here confuse me quite a bit (essentially, variants of not being quoted a price before a thing happens). In the UK it's common to, say, go to a pub and buy a pint. It's not usual to ask for the price first. It's possible a bar could decide to quote me 500 quid after pouring. I'd obviously decline and walk out. How is it any different in the healthcare case? If you've made an honest effort to det…

You forgot the part about forcing you to sign paperwork saying you'll pay everything insurance doesn't before you see anyone.

That's how I went from being told I was only getting charged $100ish and wound up being forced to pay $600.

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#107

Post by fjsolwmv »

erentz wrote: post #24

For the past three weeks I’ve been going through a flare up of an autoimmune neurological condition. It’s been terribly painful. The treatment is high dose IVIG or plasmapheresis. Unfortunately my insurer doesn’t want to pay. I’m told if I had almost any other insurer they would. This has left me trying to find out just how much I’d have to pay out of pocket for either of these services. But absolutely no one knows a…

What would justify such a law, in a free country like the USA? Even socialised medicine countries can't force private providers to charge constant rates to their private clients.

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#108

Post by shawn »

dang wrote: post #103
shawn wrote: post #100

Actually, when you do things a community member disagrees with, you ban them and say they aren’t really a part of the community. The front page ranking is determined entirely by you. The comment ranking isn't far behind. Credit where credit is due.

None of that is true. Since you either can't or won't stop posting like this, we're not going to unban you after three months, because clearly this problem is just continuing. But if you can go three months without posting any abusive, off-topic, meta comments, we'll consider it. In the meantime, we're continuing to unkill good comments that you post, if the community hasn't vouched for them first. We detached this c…

Note that I never revealed the secrets about HN that you trusted me with. Remember?

That makes it rather hard to prove that you do in fact determine the front page ranking, except perhaps for stories that the community initially upvotes.

The comment ranking is determined by you to the extent that you specifically micro manage comments that you feel don’t deserve the top slot, even if the community disagrees. I have several examples of this.

I don’t understand why you have a problem with someone simply stating what they know to be true.

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#109

Post by LinuxBender »

kevingadd wrote: post #32
outworlder wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an abdominal ultrassound, because some of my bloodwork was off and the doctor wanted to confirmed my liver was ok. Very routine. So I agreed. 15 minutes from the time I got to the reception desk to the time I was out of the door. Hospital billed $6000 (already negotiated down with insurance). Insurance paid around $4000. They wanted me to pony up 2k. Told no. Went to collections, negotiated to just under 1000.…

This is basically the reason I have Kaiser and have stuck with them for over a decade. The quality of service is shaky sometimes, and there is doctor turnover, and sometimes I have to travel relatively far to see a specialist - but if a KP physician refers me for something, I get scheduled to see someone, then I get it done, and I pay a reasonable copay that I know about immediately. I've never had to haggle with ins…

I left Kaiser. As far as I can tell, they don't have any doctors. I've been told that if I yell at them repeatedly, they could get me one, but I don't have time for those shenanigans. I went there for a GI issue. They poked my belly and said, "It's a virus". Had I not figured out the issue on my own, it could have become life threatening. Several coworkers know people that have been misdiagnosed and lost loved ones because of Kaiser. It seems to me that Kaiser is an entry level place for new doctors to get some experience. The offices are tiny and everything is rushed.

Yet, I've heard on HN so many people love that place. I can't fathom how that is the case. Even military clinics are decades ahead of Kaiser.

The only positive thing I have seen about Kaiser is that they are an amazing drug company. Each campus has 2 to 4 pharmacies. That must be a very lucrative business.

Re: Bringing transparency to ER prices, one hospital bill at a time

#110

Post by outworlder »

apsec112 wrote: post #33
outworlder wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an abdominal ultrassound, because some of my bloodwork was off and the doctor wanted to confirmed my liver was ok. Very routine. So I agreed. 15 minutes from the time I got to the reception desk to the time I was out of the door. Hospital billed $6000 (already negotiated down with insurance). Insurance paid around $4000. They wanted me to pony up 2k. Told no. Went to collections, negotiated to just under 1000.…

Goddamn, are you me? I have the exact same story. Minor blood test anomaly, liver ultrasound, 30 minutes, surprise $6,000 bill. Pretty sure it's the same hospital too.

The only thing that would make it weirder is if the initial bloodwork happened to have been also ordered and checked by a doctor from your company's 'health center'.
Post reply on HN