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Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

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Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#81

Post by lostlogin »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #25
ambiate wrote: post #14

I dream of a day when I can walk into an area which offers 'services' and be offered a pricing chart. From hospitals, banks, loan officers, home loans, cars, etc. A cryptic itemized list, such as a mortgage's Good Faith Estimate (GFE), which falls short of describing the items in the list still fails my test. This hope is not for me. Its for the misfortunate who run on impulse and have weak mathematical logic. Many p…

> I dream of a day when I can walk into an area which offers 'services' and be offered a pricing chart. I don't want to be offered a pricing chart when I have a kidney stone or get violently mugged. When that happens I don't want to have to deal with that sort of thing. The free market in medicine is plain weird. Everyone needs the doctor on occasion, and everyone needs tyres on their car. Both things are pretty stan…

This must a a US thing - I have never seen an advert on TV for a healthcare clinic of any sort that I can recall. I saw a poster at a cinema recently for a medical clinic, which I remember as it was so unusual.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#82

Post by ambiate »

DavidAdams wrote: post #75
MattBearman wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, this (along with the whole health care thing) makes me glad I live in the UK. Here renting property is very well regulated, you put down a security deposit when you move in (usually 1.5 months rent) and then any charges like this are taken from that. The best part is the security deposit legally has to be left with a third party (DPS), and then if the land lord wants to keep any of it, they have to go through th…

The shenanigans the commenter is outlining is probably an attempt to make sure that the landlord can ensure that there will be enough minor charges at move-out to enable them to keep the entire security deposit. It's shady and probably wouldn't hold up in court, but most renters wouldn't fight it and would just forfeit their deposit.

I had a landlord in Wisconsin which kept the deposit and charged an extra $200 (for weathering a high traffic area of the carpet). My current landlord is in Texas. My landlords from Mississippi were much shadier and would shame your reputation just for moving out if anyone called.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#83

Post by lettergram »

Let me start off with I worked in a medical billing office for the last 5 years and here are some things you'll never hear about:

Medicare pays only 15-25% of what they are charged, that is to say, if a surgery costs $40,000 they will only pay the doctor $10,000.

This isn't only medicare, it's literally every company. Every single insurance company pays only a fraction (usually 50%$ or less) of what the hospital actually charges you. If you don't have insurance you can just call up and usually if your semi-nice and fairly strait forward you can get the bill reduced to a fraction (30-40%) because that's about what they accept from insurance anyways.

Their prices are simply what they'll get paid in either case, so good job to these doctors, hope it helps less people get scammed and pay their full bills.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#84

Post by rhuppert »

One of the major problems with U.S. healthcare is that, financially speaking, patients have been increasingly taken out of the mix beginning in the fifties. Providers and insurance carriers shield consumers from actual costs giving a false impression of the value of competent healthcare. Insurance companies’ reimbursement rates are a fraction of the billed amount. Of course, it is the person without insurance, who is stuck with what can be a very inflated invoice. Of course, there are manifold problems with this industry; but until patients are exposed to accurate financial comparisons, the costs will continue to escalate.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#85

Post by cmarschner »

Daishiman wrote: post #40
stephengillie wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a person in Germany without insurance goes to a hospital emergency room for treatment, who pays for it?

Health care in Germany is socialized. Some small items are left to the patient but for the most part nothing is paid out of pocket.

Not quite true, it is in some ways similar to the US, with public and private insurance. However the majority is part of the public insurance, and in general health insurance is mandatory. There are some awkward ways by which you can fall out of private insurance and can't get back into public insurance, but these cases are rare. In case of not having an insurance you'd be billed like any privately insured patient.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#86

Post by crusso »

redler wrote: post #71
crusso wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The free market in medicine is plain weird Says you. Time and again, Lasik surgery and cosmetic surgeries not covered by insurance or hindered by over-regulation have shown us that transparent pricing and competition work to make those procedures more affordable -- just like these forces work in other markets. The State has perverted the medical market for more than half a century and you're just used to seeing it in…

It's also important to consider that Lasik and cosmetic surgeries are elective procedures characterized by elastic demand. Having a trauma surgeon remove a ruptured spleen, or being treated for a heart attack, are situations where demand is completely inelastic. One might shop around for the best way to spend a spare $10,000 for an eye lift, but who can be expected to shop for an economically satisfying deal while in…

Doctors running all over the ER and into operating rooms plays well on TV... but in real life most surgery is scheduled days or even weeks ahead of time.

Even in emergencies, if you knew the reputation of a hospital and were responsible for paying your own bills, you'd likely go to the one that had the price/performance reputation that you were most comfortable with.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#87

Post by tapp »

rthomas6 wrote: post #67
showerst wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copying my comment below. The government not only allows healthcare providers to reveal their prices, it encourages it. The graf about the government is a political statement, not a policy fact, and does not belong in a news story. ----- Medicare/caid prices are standardized and public. They also release data on what specific hospitals bill for the most common procedures. http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-a…

You and the article seem to be saying totally contradictory things. Was the article just outright lying, or is there some nuance I'm missing?

The article's statement is misleading, but arguably true if you parse it the right way.

Medicare very likely does not allow for the prices featured on their online price menu. You could therefore say that it "won't allow for their online price menu" since without the underlying prices, there can be no menu.

I agree that as written, the statement is misleading and feels politically motivated. No way to know if the spin was applied by the doctor or the journalist.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#88

Post by will_brown »

FYI for all Florida patients, under the FL Patient Bill of Rights FL Statute 381.026(4)(c)(3): "A health care provider or a health care facility shall, upon request, furnish a patient, prior to provision of medical services, a reasonable estimate of charges for such services."

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#89

Post by javert »

> Dr. Smith said federal Medicare regulation would not allow for their online price menu.

> They have avoided government regulation and control in that area by choosing not to accept Medicaid or Medicare payments.

Obama, better close up that loophole! Wouldn't want people to find out that capitalism works in every. single. industry.

Re: Hospital creates bidding war by posting pricing online

#90

Post by wtvanhest »

possibilistic wrote: post #32
HarryHirsch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I dream of a day when I can walk into an area which offers 'services' and be offered a pricing chart. I don't want to be offered a pricing chart when I have a kidney stone or get violently mugged. When that happens I don't want to have to deal with that sort of thing. The free market in medicine is plain weird. Everyone needs the doctor on occasion, and everyone needs tyres on their car. Both things are pretty stan…

> Yet on TV you see many many more ads for the local hospital or medication for condition X that you see for tyres. How come? Tires are a simple, well-known product, whereas medicine is not. Drug discovery happens to be a billion dollar process that often results in failure. All of the low-hanging fruit have been taken, and the remaining solutions all require intense research. Though a compound or antibody or whateve…

More importantly, tires are low margin products, newly patented drugs are extremely high margin products.

The higher the margin a product is, the more valuable it is to market.

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