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Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

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Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#221

Post by phkahler »

justaguyhere wrote: post #182
bookofjoe wrote: post #172

Pro tip: I was a neurosurgical anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center for twelve years (1983-1995). Every now and then I'd get a call from our billing office that they'd received a letter from a patient I'd cared for who was too poor to pay what our department had billed (usually many thousands of dollars: I had NO IDEA what our charges were, BTW, nor did any of my colleagues in the dep…

by my initialing a form we had, their balance due us was 0 That is very nice of you. I hope others like you in positions of power do the same!

After thinking about this, I realized he probably didn't do the job for free. Even though "anesthesia" is broken out as a line item on the bill from the hospital, it's not what the anesthesiologist gets paid. It's probably not a passed-through charge like it appears to be.

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#222

Post by phkahler »

itissid wrote: post #215
karmelapple wrote: post #195

I was in a hospital in Singapore recently, and the prices for doctor consultation fees, staying in a room, and even certain tests were listed right at the front of the emergency room desk. After the patient I was with was stabilized, the nurse confirmed with us verbally what the rough cost should be for the rest of what the doctor prescribed, and asked if we wished to proceed. We could have said no and gone elsewhere…

Playing the devil's advocate for a sec here. But If you paid out of pocket and later got reimbursed by the insurance company, I think, you would have to deal with the insurance company later. The system in the US is quite different and although broken it can be fixed by just fairer price comparison mandated by law.

The only way that will work is if the insurance companies have to pay the posted prices, which I advocate as well.

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#223

Post by geomark »

karmelapple wrote: post #195

I was in a hospital in Singapore recently, and the prices for doctor consultation fees, staying in a room, and even certain tests were listed right at the front of the emergency room desk. After the patient I was with was stabilized, the nurse confirmed with us verbally what the rough cost should be for the rest of what the doctor prescribed, and asked if we wished to proceed. We could have said no and gone elsewhere…

That's similar to my experience in Thailand. Everyone in my family has had one or more hospital stays for illness, surgery or injury. Prices for common procedures are posted. After initial evaluation there is a discussion about what the estimated total cost will be.

I would never again want to have medical treatment in the USA.

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#224

Post by arethuza »

vxNsr wrote: post #208
nicoburns wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We were able to pursue some things we probably wouldn't have otherwise. Simple things like having more cough syrup on hand became a no-brainer as cost of visit and prescription was guaranteed to be $0 This is one of the big upsides of always free at the point of access healthcare like we have in the UK. Although there is some inefficiency, in practice I beleive it actually lowers the total cost of healthcare as peo…

Someone recently pointed out here that in the UK you still have pox parties because the chickenpox vaccine is considered too expensive by NHS. So that's another way to lower costs, of course you now have a 20% possibility of getting shingles and dealing with that pain.

Apparently its not about cost but from a fear (which may be unfounded) of increasing the frequency of shingles:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/may/1...

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#225

Post by dfxm12 »

karmelapple wrote: post #195

I was in a hospital in Singapore recently, and the prices for doctor consultation fees, staying in a room, and even certain tests were listed right at the front of the emergency room desk. After the patient I was with was stabilized, the nurse confirmed with us verbally what the rough cost should be for the rest of what the doctor prescribed, and asked if we wished to proceed. We could have said no and gone elsewhere…

We could have said no and gone elsewhere if we wanted, since the patient at least was relatively stable and we knew what was wrong.

Next question, if the patient did go elsewhere, would they get to keep all the test results/would the hospital share the test results with the new facility? Or would the new place have to rerun all those tests?

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#226

Post by tomohawk »

bookofjoe wrote: post #172

Pro tip: I was a neurosurgical anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center for twelve years (1983-1995). Every now and then I'd get a call from our billing office that they'd received a letter from a patient I'd cared for who was too poor to pay what our department had billed (usually many thousands of dollars: I had NO IDEA what our charges were, BTW, nor did any of my colleagues in the dep…

If you are a patient in this situation, there are advocates who can help you. One thing to try is to ask the billing department if they will "accept assignment". What that means is that instead of billing you their fake rate, they would instead bill you as if you were an insurer.

IMO, it is incredibly unethical and dishonest for these medical corporations to charge different fees depending on who you are. Prices should be transparent, and should be the same for everyone.

Some may argue that an organization representing a large pool of people should be able to achieve economy of scale and a better price. This seems false to me, as in reality there is only one pool of people and care provider provide care to that one pool. Its time to kick the middlemen out.

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#227

Post by thefringthing »

karmelapple wrote: post #195

I was in a hospital in Singapore recently, and the prices for doctor consultation fees, staying in a room, and even certain tests were listed right at the front of the emergency room desk. After the patient I was with was stabilized, the nurse confirmed with us verbally what the rough cost should be for the rest of what the doctor prescribed, and asked if we wished to proceed. We could have said no and gone elsewhere…

Would you prefer the Singaporean norm (clearly posted prices) to the Canadian/European one (free at the point of use)?

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#228

Post by cheez »

tomohawk wrote: post #226
bookofjoe wrote: post #172

Pro tip: I was a neurosurgical anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center for twelve years (1983-1995). Every now and then I'd get a call from our billing office that they'd received a letter from a patient I'd cared for who was too poor to pay what our department had billed (usually many thousands of dollars: I had NO IDEA what our charges were, BTW, nor did any of my colleagues in the dep…

If you are a patient in this situation, there are advocates who can help you. One thing to try is to ask the billing department if they will "accept assignment". What that means is that instead of billing you their fake rate, they would instead bill you as if you were an insurer. IMO, it is incredibly unethical and dishonest for these medical corporations to charge different fees depending on who you are. Prices shou…

When you remove the middlemen, what will you replace them with?

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#229

Post by mikestew »

lostlogin wrote: post #59
AmericanChopper wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the developed world, the price of routine checkups are not what people would generally be referring to when discussing _quality_ of healthcare. Generally speaking, the US has the best facilities, technology, expertise and pharmaceuticals available. Which is why people come from all over the world for procedures that simply aren’t available elsewhere. Again, I’m not talking about the problems with accessibility, me…

This weird argument pops up regularly. In relation to New Zealand (where I am) it’s argued that the US is subsidising the cost of drug scripts. It’s beyond me quite how NZs drug buying agency is running roughshod over the rights of drug companies that have multiple insurance companies in the US that are bigger customers. What’s the agenda behind this argument?

The U. S. is the last place drug companies can get away with it, is what the agenda is. Americans are suckers for a good capitalist argument. “U. S. customers pay more because they have to subsidize those filthy socialists.” Imma gonna have to call bullshit. You’re telling me you sell to NZ at a loss because...New Zealand tanks will roll up to your doorstep if you don’t? Does New Zealand even own a tank? No, you sell to NZ because you somehow figured out how to profit from doing so.

But as we see above, plenty are willing to carry the water of the poor, downtrodden drug companies.

Re: Hospital prices are about to go public in the U.S.

#230

Post by lallysingh »

cheez wrote: post #228
tomohawk wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are a patient in this situation, there are advocates who can help you. One thing to try is to ask the billing department if they will "accept assignment". What that means is that instead of billing you their fake rate, they would instead bill you as if you were an insurer. IMO, it is incredibly unethical and dishonest for these medical corporations to charge different fees depending on who you are. Prices shou…

When you remove the middlemen, what will you replace them with?

Tiny bits of software.
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