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Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

healthcaredive.com

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Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#31

Post by splistud »

Someone1234 wrote: post #20
toomuchtodo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

File a complaint with Health and Human Services [1]. It is clear they are not acting in good faith. Take snapshots of the URL with the Internet Archive for notarization [2]. [1] https://www.cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency/contact-us [2] https://web.archive.org/save

I actually might, the wording on this page: https://www.cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency Does say "provide clear, accessible pricing information" which I would argue this is not. edit: Filed a complaint.

Fantastic. In return I will review my locals and see what they report.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#32

Post by avs733 »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #25
Someone1234 wrote: post #10

Local hospital released this as an Excel spreadsheet (Chargemaster). They have a column called "Uninsured cash price." These prices are And, no, I don't think this was by accident as they have updated this Excel spreadsheet several times and only that one column is always set to 0 size.

I would think hospitals like people paying the cash price?

Things they would love more:

Accepting the cash price after billing the person for the full price and writing off the difference.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#33

Post by gfodor »

It will be fun to watch people be positive on this until they are reminded who we have to thank for it.

Edit: CNN hasn't forgotten, notice the obvious negative spin, with literally zero argument of how this may be beneficial: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/hospital-price-trans...

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#34

Post by kindle-dev »

Someone1234 wrote: post #28
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think hospitals like people paying the cash price?

They make less that way. If they know you're insured they won't allow you to pay the cash price, only the much higher negotiated price.

But someone told me insurance companies are bad and are stiffing those poor, struggling doctors and hospitals.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#35

Post by peterangular »

Someone1234 wrote: post #10

Local hospital released this as an Excel spreadsheet (Chargemaster). They have a column called "Uninsured cash price." These prices are And, no, I don't think this was by accident as they have updated this Excel spreadsheet several times and only that one column is always set to 0 size.

And this can really cause issues for people who are insured because if an insurance company decides not to cover something (very very common, even in-network) then the inflated price is what you end up getting billed for.

That is until you call the hospital and find out there's all sorts of "sliding" prices etc...

I had a procedure billed for one of these drastically larger "insured" codes which got denied based on the nature of the procedure from the insurance company (apparently too new of a procedure at the time, however common now).

It all got worked out in the end but what I realized was that hospitals are largely subsidizing the cost of the uninsured by over-billing the insured folk's insurance companies. We've set the American healthcare system up to be a cat and mouse game where those in need are represented the least.

Best insurance here is "don't get sick"

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#36

Post by Darkharbourzz »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #14
Someone1234 wrote: post #10

Local hospital released this as an Excel spreadsheet (Chargemaster). They have a column called "Uninsured cash price." These prices are And, no, I don't think this was by accident as they have updated this Excel spreadsheet several times and only that one column is always set to 0 size.

File a complaint with Health and Human Services [1]. It is clear they are not acting in good faith. Take snapshots of the URL with the Internet Archive for notarization [2]. [1] https://www.cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency/contact-us [2] https://web.archive.org/save

Thanks for posting this. I just looked to see if my local hospital had prices available. They have a webpage set up, but they give you a dummy link! Outrageous! I will absolutely be making a complaint.

I'm also going to post a review online, since poor reviews seem to get attention from them.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#37

Post by jweir »

Someone1234 wrote: post #10

Local hospital released this as an Excel spreadsheet (Chargemaster). They have a column called "Uninsured cash price." These prices are And, no, I don't think this was by accident as they have updated this Excel spreadsheet several times and only that one column is always set to 0 size.

Anytime I have a procedure, imaging, anything I ask for the out of pocket price. You can save a lot of money doing this especially imaging.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#38

Post by novok »

breckenedge wrote: post #6
spaetzleesser wrote: post #2

Full openness is a good first step to make this insane system a little better. Next step would be for hospitals to quote the same price for the same procedure no matter if or where you are insured. I can’t think of another business where prices are different by hundreds of percent for different customer groups. Also get rid of the whole in and out network system.

I like the idea of getting rid of in/out of network. Both recent administrations have taken steps in this direction.

Psychologists want to charge $200-$250/hr, but insurance only reimburses $120-$160/hr. You might think these are high prices, but chargeable hours isn't hours worked for psychologists, since they have to do notes for every meeting, manage the business, appointments, etc, which reduces their total take home to something below $200k/yr, which is below a typical bigtech Eng II with only a couple years of experience, potentially not even going to college if they are clever and self motivated enough. While a psychologist has gone to school for 10 years and paid for it.

It's gaps like that that lead to the entire in/out network split.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#39

Post by m0ngr31 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #10

Local hospital released this as an Excel spreadsheet (Chargemaster). They have a column called "Uninsured cash price." These prices are And, no, I don't think this was by accident as they have updated this Excel spreadsheet several times and only that one column is always set to 0 size.

My local hospital offers a cash discount of nearly 50% if you pay at time of service.

Re: Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings in pricing by procedure

#40

Post by quadrifoliate »

peterangular wrote: post #17
scheme271 wrote: post #5

This will probably help a bit but in an emergency people don't have the time to compare prices. And with US health care, it just takes one accident that sends you to the ER and where someone that's out of network performed a procedure to end up with a bill that's tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The other big conflict here is that I'm not an expert and I'm not about to turn down services if recommended to me by an expert in a field which I have no experience. I get the whole "do your research", but often it's in areas in-which I have no real capability - especially with healthcare. --- > And with US health care, it just takes one accident that sends you to the ER and where someone that's out of network perfo…

> I get the whole "do your research", but often it's in areas in-which I have no real capability - especially with healthcare.

Oh the system has answers – just happen to be high enough at your company, or the spouse of someone who is.

> While a benefits expert at a mid-sized company may create a narrow network, an executive's spouse, for example, may want to go somewhere not in the network. "And there's a pillow talk that happens. And the next thing you know that hospital is in the network," Ladd said.

This whole "employer provides your healthcare" thing we have going on in the US is just nuts.

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