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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

#81

Post by gwright »

jonathan-adly wrote: post #63

I am one of the people responsible for making these lists. The fact that the general public as well as journalists think this data is accurate in anyway is really funny. This an exercise of futility that only increases the overall cost and provides job security for me :) No one working in a hospital knows how much do we acquire things for, or how much we get paid for doing things in advance. And only like 8 people ca…

I think the point of making the lists public is to provide information that can lead to iterative improvements. I'm not sure it will do that but I'm a bit more confident that it is a necessary first step.

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

#82

Post by rpmisms »

mullingitover wrote: post #73
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.

> These prices are There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."

Not technically "insurance", these are cost-sharing companies. Often religious due to Obama's brilliance.

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

#83

Post by loeg »

mullingitover wrote: post #73
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.

> These prices are There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."

You’re probably thinking of “healthcare ministries,” which are not insurance (they’re scams).

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

#84

Post by scohesc »

derwiki wrote: post #76
mullingitover wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These prices are There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."

Is it illegal to state you don’t have insurance when you do? Or is this product not considered Insurance in the legal sense?

They could be running as a "health spending account" where you can spend the money on whatever you want provided it's health-related. You don't technically have "insurance" but you're insured.

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

#85

Post by michael_j_ward »

mullingitover wrote: post #73
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.

> These prices are There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."

Please provide an example or two.

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

#86

Post by travoc »

derwiki wrote: post #76
mullingitover wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These prices are There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."

Is it illegal to state you don’t have insurance when you do? Or is this product not considered Insurance in the legal sense?

Health care consumers are absolutely free to pay providers directly even if they carry insurance coverage.

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

#87

Post by loeg »

rpmisms wrote: post #82
mullingitover wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These prices are There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."

Not technically "insurance", these are cost-sharing companies. Often religious due to Obama's brilliance.

They are required to have some shared religious belief to be exempt from the ACA.

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

#88

Post by minsc__and__boo »

gwright wrote: post #81
jonathan-adly wrote: post #63

I am one of the people responsible for making these lists. The fact that the general public as well as journalists think this data is accurate in anyway is really funny. This an exercise of futility that only increases the overall cost and provides job security for me :) No one working in a hospital knows how much do we acquire things for, or how much we get paid for doing things in advance. And only like 8 people ca…

I think the point of making the lists public is to provide information that can lead to iterative improvements. I'm not sure it will do that but I'm a bit more confident that it is a necessary first step.

I thought the lists were a red herring for the problems with privatized healthcare - i.e. look at how complicated pricing is, not how it is being complicated by for-profit middlemen.

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

#89

Post by cwkoss »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #67
dehrmann wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biden doesn't run his mouth when he shouldn't, but foreign policy with China and along the southern border are essentially the same as under Trump, and the Afghanistan withdrawal alienated some NATO allies. Biden is carrying over more of Trump's policies than you'd expect.

Presidents come and go, but the Blob is eternal.

It is funny/depressing to think how different our country would be today if Bernie had been the 2016 dem nominee.

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

#90

Post by toomuchtodo »

derwiki wrote: post #76
mullingitover wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These prices are There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."

Is it illegal to state you don’t have insurance when you do? Or is this product not considered Insurance in the legal sense?

It's not insurance. They're "fixed indemnity plans." Sidecar Health is the one I'm familiar with.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/usc-brookings-schaeffer-on-he... (Fixed indemnity health coverage is a problematic form of “junk insurance”)

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