171–180 of 311 posts
And for nothing! Insurance should not be certifying which doctors you can and cannot see. That's for the medical boards to decide.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, this is the reason why you can't get an answer but it's not a justification . There are 2 parts to it. The first, which is reasonable, is that a lot of treatments are bespoke. Fine. That's a justification for their being costly not for your having to imagine the cost because no one can tell you. Even for flights, the truth is I can get a bespoke flight if I can afford it. And if I want to know how much it is th…
> The first, which is reasonable, is that a lot of treatments are bespoke. Fine. That's a justification for their being costly not for your having to imagine the cost because no one can tell you. Treatments are billed using billing codes so they are definitely not bespoke.
In a sane world you would generate three billing codes, sum them, and you'd have your price. But that's not how it really works. Instead certain billing codes can be combined to form new billing codes which makes things stupid crazy hard to reason about.
Those rolled up billing codes can then even roll up to different billing codes when combined with other procedures or other grouped billing codes.
When billing is this complex the treatments do begin to look relatively bespoke.
Basically we're inefficient from basically every direction in the USA. Because every player in the system negotiates with basically everyone else individually you end up with a nightmare of complexity and all of the associated insanity. Hospitals love it because it means that they can take advantage of the complexity to bill for all sorts of things that they otherwise couldn't simply because no one can audit this stuff effectively.
> Transparency is not going to work where there is no competition, Emily Gee, a health economist at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, told Healthcare Dive. That's bs. I will drive to a further away hospital if it saves me $75 an hour of time spent... (edit: clearly I'm talking about non-emergency here)
In my area (250k people, Iowa) there are 2 health groups.
I actively tried finding a PCP who wasn't part of the two health groups but accepted insurance - as mega health groups greatly increase the total cost of care. I gave up after looking up about 20 from the hundred or so names insurance sent me. Basically everyone
Unity Point recently announced it wouldn't be merging with Sanford health group. That would have expanded Sanford's strong footing in northwest Iowa, gaining 5 hospitals in Des Moines and at least one hospital in most locally large cities across the east half of state.
It's hard enough to make the math work for hospitals in rural areas. The merger would have made it more difficult for the entire region to find competition.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, this is the reason why you can't get an answer but it's not a justification . There are 2 parts to it. The first, which is reasonable, is that a lot of treatments are bespoke. Fine. That's a justification for their being costly not for your having to imagine the cost because no one can tell you. Even for flights, the truth is I can get a bespoke flight if I can afford it. And if I want to know how much it is th…
> The first, which is reasonable, is that a lot of treatments are bespoke. Fine. That's a justification for their being costly not for your having to imagine the cost because no one can tell you. Treatments are billed using billing codes so they are definitely not bespoke.
The previous administration had a similar effort that failed. I hope that this effort is successful. >"For instance, it could allow one provider to follow and match the prices of the other provider (like two gas stations across the street from one another who face no other competition)," Garmon said. I understand this argument, but I think they underrate how much people are willing to shop around when they actually h…
If prices are transparent enough, eventually bored programmers will create websites & other tools that make it super simple to find the lowest cost provider in any non-emergency situation, and probably even emergency situations if you are looking ahead of time
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, you could do what other developed countries do: Don't rely on private for profit hospitals. Here, most hospitals are run either by cities or counties, or by the public insurance companies themselves. This ensures that hospitals have an incentive to be efficient. There are private hospitals, but only very few people go there, since they are very expensive, and you get good care in the public hospitals.
So a quick way to check reality is by looking at behavior, so say you wanted the "best" care for something no matter the costs. Most people would fly to the U.S from wherever. That is telling you something. I agree the "general" care like broken bones etc its probably all the same, but healthcare innovation is done in the U.S. So it is kind of moot to say "its good here"... yes after the innovation trickles its way o…
I've only heard of people travel to get dental work done cheaper (not to the US).
The only complaint I've heard is that some procedures (eg. joint replacements) have a waiting list, so if a doctor decides that you don't need it urgently, you may have to wait a few months. I don't know what the situation for these procedures is like in the US.
Just because it's publicly funded doesn't mean it's bad quality. It just means there's no incentive to charge ridiculous amounts for procedures.
Also, Doctors still earn a decent salary here. Maybe not comparable to US salaries in absolute numbers, but it's enough to live a very comfortable life, and they don't have any students loans to pay back...
The previous administration had a similar effort that failed. I hope that this effort is successful. >"For instance, it could allow one provider to follow and match the prices of the other provider (like two gas stations across the street from one another who face no other competition)," Garmon said. I understand this argument, but I think they underrate how much people are willing to shop around when they actually h…
I'd pay more for quality. If I knew hospital X is better at hip replacement I'd pay extra to go there. Of course how much extra I'm not sure, and I'm also not sure how you compare hip replacement quality like that. It is only emergency rooms where I don't get a choice - if you need an emergency room close is important.