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I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

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Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#81

Post by mikehotel »

legitster wrote: post #48
briHass wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doctors prescribing named brand, and you not be allowed to switch back to generic without another $100+ appointment I'm not sure this is that common, unless you have an adversarial relationship with your doctor. It's actually the opposite: in most states the Dr. must write DAW-dispense as written or 'name brand only' to get the expensive brand. Otherwise, the pharmacist can and will substitute a generic if availabl…

Fun fact, your pharmacist is allowed to change your prescription in some states! Try asking them if there are cheaper generics.

Good to know, thanks!

BTW, Hopefully the last word is just a typo.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#82

Post by stevage »

>Require a standard format. Pick JSON or CSV in some standard encoding. We don't need hospitals publishing XML files and Excel spreadsheets.

Definitely CSV. Always CSV. It's easy to produce, easy to parse, and kind of human readable. And easy to do some basic analysis with tools that everyone has access to - Excel, Google Sheets etc.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#83

Post by mushbino »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51
javajosh wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So I guess I should shop around by moving cities No, the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor. If you are poor, stop it. Then you don't have to worry about any of this. Consider abortion, a procedure now outlawed in many US states. If you're not poor, you can just pay to travel to another state or country, have the procedure, do some sight-seeing, and come home. The law has no de facto ef…

> the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor American healthcare works well if you have money and better than anywhere else in the world if you have money and a chronic condition. If you get in an accident, however, particularly while away from your posh neighbourhood, you’re getting the same overworked, hyper-indebted surgeon as the homeless man. (If you’re a billionaire or head of state, t…

Not just if you have money. If you have a lot of money. The majority of the country is one major accident away from being completely wiped out. It's the number one cause of bankruptcy.

I had an emergency this year within a very tiny insurance gap between employers and now all of my savings and retirement are gone.

I'm really not sure who it works out better for versus universal healthcare, but I can't imagine it's a whole lot.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#84

Post by dd36 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #58
screye wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's up with those million dollar benefits ? What could they possibly be spending those on ?

Defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare. Politicians get to calculate the present value however they want today (which always means understating the real cost), and letting the future deal with the problem and playing catch-up to the real costs. No one cared about this enough so government employee unions and politicians back then got away with underpaying employees in cash (hence reputation of government pay…

This is why looking at government spending over time is an incomplete picture. If a huge chunk goes to retirees and wasn’t 40 years ago, there’s simply less leftover for everything else.

Tax revenue might be higher than ever but net available for programs is down. Thus, the feeling by many that government must be wasting money.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#85

Post by shusaku »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #70
SilasX wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF about, not just the compensation, but the fact that some of these show a salary of $200k with $2.X million in benefits. Like, what? https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2021/gateway-comm...

Almost certainly the value of pensions. There are teachers on that list making $65k with "benefits" of 1mm, which is probably the NPV of ~20 years of pension income.

This is why transparency is often nothing but a parlor trick. The raw information we are given is useless

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#86

Post by exabrial »

Where to start...

1. Somehow in the mid-2010s congress decided that anyway that walks onto private property, demands care from a private organization, will receive it, even if they declare they will not pay a dime to the staff working.

2. Congress could have totally create/build a system of hospitals that provides "one time care" for those people, but doesn't.

3. Instead they pass the buck and say "figure it out" to the private industry.

4. Hospitals are squeaking by largely flopping duties on nurses, making their jobs far less enjoyable (wrangling entitled individuals instead of healing people and providing care), and charing double-triple to responsible individuals who will pay for themselves.

5. E.R.s are now becoming "primary care" for large majority of the US population, as they show up, then disappear knowing they won't be stuck with a bill.

6. Members of Congress literally don't give a crap about "common folk" and go on golfing and enjoying their free healthcare for life. Meanwhile commonfolk and the poorest of the poor don't get the same deal. One set of rules for peasants, one set of rules for the 1%.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#87

Post by rrdharan »

mushbino wrote: post #83
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor American healthcare works well if you have money and better than anywhere else in the world if you have money and a chronic condition. If you get in an accident, however, particularly while away from your posh neighbourhood, you’re getting the same overworked, hyper-indebted surgeon as the homeless man. (If you’re a billionaire or head of state, t…

Not just if you have money. If you have a lot of money. The majority of the country is one major accident away from being completely wiped out. It's the number one cause of bankruptcy. I had an emergency this year within a very tiny insurance gap between employers and now all of my savings and retirement are gone. I'm really not sure who it works out better for versus universal healthcare, but I can't imagine it's a…

You weren’t able to use COBRA? Or was the coverage just very poor even with it?

My probably naive understanding was that COBRA can be activated retroactively if you get in an accident during the coverage gap.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#88

Post by dragonwriter »

dd36 wrote: post #84
lotsofpulp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare. Politicians get to calculate the present value however they want today (which always means understating the real cost), and letting the future deal with the problem and playing catch-up to the real costs. No one cared about this enough so government employee unions and politicians back then got away with underpaying employees in cash (hence reputation of government pay…

This is why looking at government spending over time is an incomplete picture. If a huge chunk goes to retirees and wasn’t 40 years ago, there’s simply less leftover for everything else. Tax revenue might be higher than ever but net available for programs is down. Thus, the feeling by many that government must be wasting money.

> If a huge chunk goes to retirees and wasn’t 40 years ago, there’s simply less leftover for everything else.

If you are talking about state governments in the US, that's approximately true.

If you are talking about the federal government, it's not, because the idea of a fixed purse is simply false. Spending and revenue are separate policy decisions that don't constraint each other.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#89

Post by downrightmike »

pengaru wrote: post #20
khuey wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially our government. Spending. Salaries. It all needs to be public. A lot of it is. In California for example you can go look up any public employee's compensation at https://transparentcalifornia.com/

W T F https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2021/gateway-comm...

No post body was provided.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#90

Post by amluto »

maxerickson wrote: post #80
QuarterReptile wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the one that's simple to enforce. No price, no bill.

Y'all are leaving out the no service part that would come with that.

No service = no bonus for whatever exec decided not to publish the list.

In general, I’d love to see the same consumer protection required from auto shops applied to a hospital. An auto shop must give an estimate in advance.

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