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Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

modernhealthcare.com

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Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#71

Post by zeroname »

sadris wrote: post #67
abalone wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally every other industrialized country has a Medicare For All type system and somehow the hospitals manage to stay open. And you can’t mention a tax increase without mentioning the savings of not having to pay for private insurance.

literally every other country has "death panels" in which they deny care based on cost/benefit ratio. In America, everyone gets every treatment; we have the best cancer survival rates, but we pay for it. 90% of all health Care spending is spent on people within the last two years of their life: because in America we try to keep people alive for as long as possible. They have different goals in Europe. There's a reaso…

Different goals indeed:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/6127514/Sentenc...

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#72

Post by dragonwriter »

orangecat wrote: post #10
rocketpastsix wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how that will be helpful if you are in the middle of a heart attack though.

True, but emergency care is a much smaller portion of medical spending than many people realize: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct...

That's emergency room care, but it's not like you're going to be shopping for care for most care provided in admissions from ER either (especially, e.g., ER -> ICU admissions.)

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#73

Post by dragonwriter »

nonbel wrote: post #60
EamonnMR wrote: post #55

These are the stick that they threaten to beat the uninsured with to bargan with insurance companies. The entire process is ridiculous, and while they can hide behind whatever they want to say the "real" prices are, these are the threat. "I won't pull this trigger, I'll just wave it in your face until they empty the cash register."

You've got it wrong. The uninsured don't pay these prices, the insurance companies don't pay them either. The people getting screwed are those who pay a deductible/co-pay based on the inflated prices, ie the people who pay for health insurance.

> The people getting screwed are those who pay a deductible/co-pay based on the inflated prices

I.e., insured patients getting service from out of network providers; otherwise, if you have insurance, and you are paying deductible or co-insurance, it's based on the insurance negotiated price, not the chargemaster price. OTOH, if you are paying a co-pay, it's a flat fee in your insurance policy and the actual (chargemaster or negotiated) price is irrelevant.

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#74

Post by temp231239 »

40four wrote: post #31

This is very exciting to me. I have been wanting this for a long time, and I belive it's a small step towards improving the healthcare system in the United States. It shouldn't matter these aren't he "real" prices, as so many folks have been quick to point out. But it's the starting point for what ever you think the "real" price is, and it's information that has never been easily accessible to the public until now. A…

I am hopeful of these changes, too. But market alone won't have any influence in deterring hospitals from charging arbitrary charges. Market works best when there are range of options available, but in case of hospitals in US only few big players are hoarding all medicinal resources leaving patients with no choice.

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#75

Post by crankylinuxuser »

all2 wrote: post #58
bmogen wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What other for-profit corporations operate within the premise of improving public health and have multiple federal agencies overseeing their operations?

My intent was not snarky, I actually would like to know if there are for-profit organizations that open their ledgers for regulatory purposes. I think its an interesting question, and there are implications if there is a precedent that health care organizations could follow.

Investment banks do. In fact, it's how the SEC catches fraud and other foul play maneuvers.

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#76

Post by refurb »

jfoutz wrote: post #30

I haven’t looked in years, but the prices and regional modifications paid by Medicare were available. Check the docs for electronic submission. Maybe that’s been taken down? Always seemed like a reasonable place to start.

Those are publicly available.

And if you want a sense as to what the REAL prices are, those rates are pretty damn close.

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#77

Post by kstrauser »

repeek wrote: post #37
kylec wrote: post #3

Now that this information is public, I'm looking forward to the startups that will aggregate this info and let you cross-shop hospitals to get the lowest price, like for flights

There are several companies that aggregate this data -- the industry term is "Cost Transparency". Amino, Castlight, Healthcare Bluebook, Change Healthcare, Vitals are all players in Cost Transparency. I bet if you logged into your health insurance portal you'd find a cost transparency tool that could give you a reasonable estimate of what a common procedure would cost. The unfortunate truth is price doesn't really ma…

I somewhat disagree about #2: you can (and I have) ask your doctor to get an MRI or X-ray from a standalone imaging center rather than a hospital. That alone can shave about 60% off your bill. The "but only somewhat" part is that if your doctor really prefers a certain imaging provider, they may steer you in that direction. Ultimately, though, it's your call.

Disclosure: I work at Amino, but I'm speaking from personal experience and not for them.

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#78

Post by abalone »

sadris wrote: post #67
abalone wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally every other industrialized country has a Medicare For All type system and somehow the hospitals manage to stay open. And you can’t mention a tax increase without mentioning the savings of not having to pay for private insurance.

literally every other country has "death panels" in which they deny care based on cost/benefit ratio. In America, everyone gets every treatment; we have the best cancer survival rates, but we pay for it. 90% of all health Care spending is spent on people within the last two years of their life: because in America we try to keep people alive for as long as possible. They have different goals in Europe. There's a reaso…

> literally every other country has "death panels"

Source? This term was invented by Sarah Palin and was judged 2009’s Lie of the Year by PolitiFact.[1]

> In America, everyone gets every treatment

You have no idea what you’re taking about. There are 28 million uninsured Americans and millions more who are unable to afford treatment due to high deductibles.[2]

You cherry-picked one statistic, but overall the U.S. has worse health outcomes vs other high income countries while spending 2X as much.[3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_panel

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/rates-of-uninsured-in-us-hol...

[3] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/03/u-s-pays-more...

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#79

Post by curiousgal »

I find this whole situation ironic because whenever I come across a news article online of some Third World country making an improvement, mostly in regards of human rights like Saudi Arabia allowing women to drive or Tunisia passing inheritance equality laws, the general response is "Meh, this shouldn't have been an issue to begin with".

When it comes to the U.S., particularly with anything that involves its helathy care system, the slightest event is considered a step in the right direction. Well guess what? I wholeheartedly believe that it is both sad and pathetic to consider this as a win for the people against the healthcare industry. A country as rich as the U.S. and that spends on healthcare per capita more than other countries like Canada, should not have a for profit system.

A "hospital's retail price list" is the epitome of a for profit system, those words shouldn't even be in the same sentence together.

I understand that HN crowd is probably in the top 10% of the country so advocating for the system to change probably is of no concern to us, but let's not lie to people and say things are getting better when they clearly are not.

Re: Hospitals release lists of retail prices for services

#80

Post by abalone »

zeroname wrote: post #59
abalone wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally every other industrialized country has a Medicare For All type system and somehow the hospitals manage to stay open. And you can’t mention a tax increase without mentioning the savings of not having to pay for private insurance.

I am talking about actual Medicare, which causes big losses for hospitals. Those need to be covered, that is my point. You can not just import other nations healthcare systems. Those are cheaper because the doctors and nurses earn less and the service is worse.

You don’t cite any evidence to support your claim. Most U.S. doctors graduate with >$100K in medical education debt. Other countries have better health outcomes, so that pretty much kills your “worse service” claim.

Rob Delaney is a great example of an American who experienced both US and U.K. systems in depth. Look him up.

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