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How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

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Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#211

Post by kstrauser »

willcipriano wrote: post #189
kstrauser wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for saying so. Flooding the market with cheap, low-quality crude would drop the price of gasoline, but it'd be horrid for the environment.

Go to the gas station and tell the struggling families how good for the environment it is that they have to choose between essentials and going to work.

Yeah, that sucks. We've gotten ourselves into a bad situation where we're still dependent on a horrible form of energy for common needs. That doesn't change the fact that every gallon of gas we burn screws up the entire planet just a little bit more.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#212

Post by codegeek »

ageitgey wrote: post #2

I'm one of the co-founders of Turquoise Health, mentioned in the article here. We've been downloading and parsing this data all day. It's a really big deal in the industry that the prices that insurance companies pay doctors are now being shared publicly. It will have all sorts of positive impacts over time, hopefully making rate negotiations more consistent and fair between different insurance plans. Right now, 10x…

I appreciate what you all are doing. We need people to try and really fix our Healthcare Industry. However, I do have a question. Are you trying to get rid of Insurance mafia at all for at least some things like basic preventive care etc because I am sure that drives costs up a lot if Insurance companies are always between a doctor and a patient. I really hope something can be done where I can just go to a doctor/hospital, ask how much and pay for it out of pocket instead of crazy premiums and all the other BS we have to go through everytime.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#214

Post by willcipriano »

kstrauser wrote: post #211
willcipriano wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to the gas station and tell the struggling families how good for the environment it is that they have to choose between essentials and going to work.

Yeah, that sucks. We've gotten ourselves into a bad situation where we're still dependent on a horrible form of energy for common needs. That doesn't change the fact that every gallon of gas we burn screws up the entire planet just a little bit more.

If anyone made a mess it isn't the single mom trying to feed her kids, she shouldn't be the one who is punished.

How about huge tax on international travel? On the order of say 500%, make it totally unaffordable. A trip to Europe produces far more carbon than a few years worth of trips to the grocery store and isn't at all necessary.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#215

Post by cddotdotslash »

programmertote wrote: post #188
chevman wrote: post #16

Wait till you find out how much it actually costs doctors/providers to render some of these services! Do you like 90% margins? Doctors sure do! :)

Spouse of a third year resident here. My wife has volunteered at several primary care (i.e. generic doctor) clinics in Manhattan and nearby area (Queens, Astoria, Brooklyn and even in Boundbrook, NJ). These are all owned by the doctors. She worked in all kinds of operations of a clinic from billing, sending prescription, taking patient history, etc. Back-of-the-napkin calculation based on my wife's experience -- if y…

> Most of these doctors would encourage the staff/volunteers who do the billing to put as many relevant billing codes as possible in the system

Is there any way to fight back against this? I've personally experienced getting a bill after a routine office visit with tons of charges I didn't recognize and procedures they absolutely did not perform. In some cases, it equates to $0 after my insurance pays, but in others it results in quite a bit of extra expenses (especially since I'm on a HDHP).

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#216

Post by FollowingTheDao »

ageitgey wrote: post #2

I'm one of the co-founders of Turquoise Health, mentioned in the article here. We've been downloading and parsing this data all day. It's a really big deal in the industry that the prices that insurance companies pay doctors are now being shared publicly. It will have all sorts of positive impacts over time, hopefully making rate negotiations more consistent and fair between different insurance plans. Right now, 10x…

Sorry, but the only thing that will help is Medicare for all. We need to get rid of insurance companies completely.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#217

Post by kstrauser »

willcipriano wrote: post #214
kstrauser wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that sucks. We've gotten ourselves into a bad situation where we're still dependent on a horrible form of energy for common needs. That doesn't change the fact that every gallon of gas we burn screws up the entire planet just a little bit more.

If anyone made a mess it isn't the single mom trying to feed her kids, she shouldn't be the one who is punished. How about huge tax on international travel? On the order of say 500%, make it totally unaffordable. A trip to Europe produces far more carbon than a few years worth of trips to the grocery store and isn't at all necessary.

I mean, that seems like peak Big Government Overreach, but to each their own. Alternatively, people could quit buying wholly inappropriate vehicles. If your job requires you to carry lots of cargo around, then a pickup makes a lot of sense. If you drive a spotless Ram 2500 that never leaves the suburb, then I don't want to hear a damn thing about the price of gasoline.

And even if you personally don't drive an idiotically wasteful vehicle, a huge portion of Americans do, and their gas guzzlers drive up demand for the same fuel that you and I want to purchase, causing its price to skyrocket.

We don't all need to be driving something like a Nissan Versa, but a lot of people whose real requirements would be met perfectly by something like that are driving Yukons and whining about gas prices.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#218

Post by willcipriano »

kstrauser wrote: post #217
willcipriano wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone made a mess it isn't the single mom trying to feed her kids, she shouldn't be the one who is punished. How about huge tax on international travel? On the order of say 500%, make it totally unaffordable. A trip to Europe produces far more carbon than a few years worth of trips to the grocery store and isn't at all necessary.

I mean, that seems like peak Big Government Overreach, but to each their own. Alternatively, people could quit buying wholly inappropriate vehicles. If your job requires you to carry lots of cargo around, then a pickup makes a lot of sense. If you drive a spotless Ram 2500 that never leaves the suburb, then I don't want to hear a damn thing about the price of gasoline. And even if you personally don't drive an idioti…

Those cars produce less carbon than your vacation halfway across the globe and aren't used purely for recreational purposes.

It seems like carbon really isn't your issue here.

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#219

Post by wildrhythms »

ageitgey wrote: post #20
jjoonathan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The information on their landing page was immediately relevant to me https://turquoise.health/ I hope they have a good business plan and manage to stick around!

Thanks! So far, so good. We don't sell anything to consumers. Our products are aimed at the healthcare industry which lets us post information for consumers for free and we have pretty good product-market fit. Obligatory "if anyone is interested in joining a fast growing, series A company doing impactful work, hit up our careers page!"

How does the healthcare industry use this data typically?

Re: How much health insurers pay for almost everything is about to go public

#220

Post by rootusrootus »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #74
ageitgey wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! So far, so good. We don't sell anything to consumers. Our products are aimed at the healthcare industry which lets us post information for consumers for free and we have pretty good product-market fit. Obligatory "if anyone is interested in joining a fast growing, series A company doing impactful work, hit up our careers page!"

Interesting, I'm curious since you're in the industry, why do you think medical tourism has never taken off in a big way in the U.S.? I feel like I saw more people willing to go to Poland or Ukraine for things like dental work when I lived in Europe than people in the U.S. willing to go to Mexico or some other destination.

Anecdotally, most of the people in my circle of friends and family are perfectly satisfied with what we get locally. If you have adequate insurance and no major medical issues, you don't save much by flying down to Mexico. I do have some extended family that have gone to Mexico for treatment, however, mostly of the dental variety. But it was major reconstruction, so it was worth the effort.

I do remember reading a story a couple years back where an insurance company paid for their customer to fly to Mexico, flew down a US orthopedic surgeon, and paid him pretty well for his services. The cost of the flights, surgeon, and medical facility in Mexico were significantly less than it would cost them in the US, so everybody won except the US hospital. As I recall, the hospital in Mexico was collocated with a resort, so it was a nice place to recuperate as well.

Not sure how common that really is, though, stories like that make the news for a reason.

Edit: Pretty sure this is the story I was thinking about: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2019/08/13/cancun

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