311–320 of 345 posts
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But god forbid we make that official with some sort of oversight and functional standard system.
God knows there is a ton of oversight. (As anyone who starts an insurance company can attest to.)
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https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/10/25/doctors-sal... Providers are the core problem. Various doctor associations (AMA et al) have strangled supply side of healthcare through State licensure and scope of practice laws. Just read medical forums to get an idea of what an average doctor thinks about competition in the form of midlevels: https://www.auntminnie.com/Forum/tm.aspx?m=581583 "Don’t teach your mid le…
Well said. I get a lot of flak from, well, pretty much everyone for pointing out that your neighborhood doctor is likely a scam artist. Clearly I’m generalizing but just suggesting it may be the case is usually met with undue skepticism. Not to mention, having an inside look at med school gives you a different perspective on the motivations of most rising doctors. It’s rarely about anything but lifestyle and money. I…
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That's extremely cool, and has my gears turning about how to encourage that kind of behavior.
That ISN'T cool, that's quite dangerous, because if it was indeed broken, that may cause harm. Rule #1 of being a doctor is violated. X-ray imaging on a finger is virtually harmless. Using a tuning fork to vibrate a potentially broken bone and causing a patient to feel pain is not harmless.
Also, don't forget about the malpractices. 10 years down the line, your radiologist friend gets successfully sued for 11 million dollars bc the parents of a child for whom they read a chest radiograph decided to sue because lawyer convinced the parent and jury that radiologist was at fault for not saying the heart is enlarged and somehow that is responsible for all the kids ailments later on in life (the truth is much more complex than that). The radiologist probably got paid 7.50$ for that read, btw. This is actually a true story, look it up in the Boston Globe. Now all providers are on edge and overdiagnosing and overordering everything - who would want to miss a diagnosis.
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Here in Germany it's less than 20. I think it was between 10 and 15 € for a finger. This includes an expert's opinion, albeit a succinct one. I wish they'd do technical/industrial things in a similar fashion. Make appointment, bring piece, get xray, wait a few minutes, leave with xray image/dataset. For cheap. Require bagging for contamination reasons.
Here in Germany we pay highest healthcare insurance costs in the world. If you earn more than 55000 Euro/year, you have to pay 9600 Euro/year for health insurance alone! And you cannot opt out! Together with your spouse you have to pay insane 19200 Euro annually! No wonder it is between 10 and 15 Euro for a finger. In USA if you pay $20000 you will be fully ensured and you will not need to pay anything for your finge…
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?locat...
Beyond opaque and variable pricing for the same service, there is also the question of whether something simpler would do the trick. Some years ago, I thought I might have broken my finger. I went to the doctor and it was actually the physician's assistant who saw me. I'd explained at the front desk that I had a high-deductible policy and I would be paying in full for the visit. The PA said "Usually we would send som…
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Here in Germany we pay highest healthcare insurance costs in the world. If you earn more than 55000 Euro/year, you have to pay 9600 Euro/year for health insurance alone! And you cannot opt out! Together with your spouse you have to pay insane 19200 Euro annually! No wonder it is between 10 and 15 Euro for a finger. In USA if you pay $20000 you will be fully ensured and you will not need to pay anything for your finge…
> If you earn more than 55000 Euro/year, you have to pay 9600 Euro/year for health insurance alone! Half of which is paid by your employer. If you earn less, you pay less and still get access to the same health care. > Together with your spouse you have to pay insane 19200 Euro annually! Only if they also earn as much. If they don't work, your don't pay anything to insure them. > And you cannot opt out! Employees ear…
Wrong. Your employer covers only 50% of base KV part and excludes PV and other extras. Take 14.6% from 55000 and divide it by 2 to see what your employer covers.
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Then they are just quoting you the "insurance price". Think about it, how could it possibly be more expensive to cut out the middle man?
Um, no. My original comment explained, their cash prices are higher than the prices through insurance. (Also there's no single "insurance price", they're different for each plan they accept.) And honestly, that's supposed to be one of the points of insurance prices, that they negotiate prices down by providing volume. So there are clearly different economic factors at play, in different doctor's offices and hospitals…
You need to go to a place that does not know you have insurance, say you do not have any, and then get the cash price from them.
It has been good practice for awhile now to claim you have no insurance even if you do: https://selfpaypatient.com/2015/05/12/insured-but-not-lettin... Once you know the cash price then you could later say you got insurance but not vice versa.
It seems like someone could start an insurance company, where all customers had to claim they had no insurance, but then sent the bill to be reimbursed.
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Um, no. My original comment explained, their cash prices are higher than the prices through insurance. (Also there's no single "insurance price", they're different for each plan they accept.) And honestly, that's supposed to be one of the points of insurance prices, that they negotiate prices down by providing volume. So there are clearly different economic factors at play, in different doctor's offices and hospitals…
There is a "cash price" in many contracts between the insurance company and provider. If you tell them you have insurance the provider must quote you this inflated price. You need to go to a place that does not know you have insurance, say you do not have any, and then get the cash price from them.
In my case, the doctors in this office are certainly unaware of anything like that. Like I said, the doctor quotes the cash price, which is standard for the office, not having the slightest idea of which insurance I have.
You keep insisting there's this separate higher cash price, but I'm explaining to you the fact that in this case, there obviously isn't, in practice.