Re:U.S. health care's widespread overbilling problem
by mindslight on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:37PM
(#14740776)
It certainly wouldn't fix everything, but there are certain type situations it would help fix, yet the philosophy hasn't been tried (at least as long as employer-sponsored health cartels have been around). True price transparency requires that a given provider charge exactly the same amount, regardless of the customer - prohibit bespoke "negotiated" rates, hidden kickbacks, etc.
Just today I went to an major-hospital urgent care clinic that has an upfront $50 fee to "be seen". I normally avoid the system like the plague it is (hence not wanting to pay into its protection rackets), but my girlfriend had gone last week for the same week-long fever and had a good experience, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
The person working at the desk told me that there "could" be "extras" that would be beyond that fee. Okay, cool. The physician's assistant recommended a chest x-ray, added it was around $75, then confirmed it was $56, and I quickly agreed. My girlfriend was a bit miffed she had turned down the x-ray without knowing the actual price.
When it came time to settle up the bill, they had added on a $130 charge because the PA had added on some billable event for her seeing me, despite that this should have clearly been included in the "$50 to be seen".
This is textbook fraud, yet it is allowed to persist. I complained, and was met with the standard "it's nobody's fault" attitude, because these people are really just skinjobs on an opaque computer system. If I had been my normal self (currently dealing with some major life events), I would have only paid for the x-ray and told them to shove their unauthorized charge up their ass. Alas, they dropped the fraudulent charge to $80, but the bad taste remains.
If I had been told the higher charge up front, that would have been completely acceptable - and if I thought it too high I could have gone to a competitor, or simply not gone (never before in my adult life have I gone to the hospital for a fever).
And that doesn't even address the travesty of the only result coming out of this visit was receiving a prescription for the exact same antibiotic my girlfriend had received a week prior! It would have been much easier for her to buy two simultaneous doses from the pharmacy, but the cartel has that locked down as well.
Just today I went to an major-hospital urgent care clinic that has an upfront $50 fee to "be seen". I normally avoid the system like the plague it is (hence not wanting to pay into its protection rackets), but my girlfriend had gone last week for the same week-long fever and had a good experience, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
The person working at the desk told me that there "could" be "extras" that would be beyond that fee. Okay, cool. The physician's assistant recommended a chest x-ray, added it was around $75, then confirmed it was $56, and I quickly agreed. My girlfriend was a bit miffed she had turned down the x-ray without knowing the actual price.
When it came time to settle up the bill, they had added on a $130 charge because the PA had added on some billable event for her seeing me, despite that this should have clearly been included in the "$50 to be seen".
This is textbook fraud, yet it is allowed to persist. I complained, and was met with the standard "it's nobody's fault" attitude, because these people are really just skinjobs on an opaque computer system. If I had been my normal self (currently dealing with some major life events), I would have only paid for the x-ray and told them to shove their unauthorized charge up their ass. Alas, they dropped the fraudulent charge to $80, but the bad taste remains.
If I had been told the higher charge up front, that would have been completely acceptable - and if I thought it too high I could have gone to a competitor, or simply not gone (never before in my adult life have I gone to the hospital for a fever).
And that doesn't even address the travesty of the only result coming out of this visit was receiving a prescription for the exact same antibiotic my girlfriend had received a week prior! It would have been much easier for her to buy two simultaneous doses from the pharmacy, but the cartel has that locked down as well.