Re:Is the World Becoming Uninsurable?
by novok on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @06:06PM
(#42786336)
There is a lot of stuff where this is not the case and pricing is still opaque or takes way too much effort. Like if I want to get a well defined CT scan or blood test. It's not as simple as going on amazon or many other retailers.
A few examples: I wanted to get a CAC scan that my insurance wouldn't cover. My insurance website said that a CAC scan would cost this much with my insurance, along with a total price that would be charged, covered or not. It was something like $80 total. I then called the place to get a CAC scan, and they said since the insurance didn't cover it, the price was $300, and there was no cash pay direct price where I could get it at the listed $80 price, even though they could hypothetically bill the insurance, and the insurance could just bill me the full price. The same place does not have a price listing; there is no online ordering I can do for the CAC scan, I needed to go through a permission process by talking to another doctor to even get the CAC scan in the first place. The fact I even needed to call people, and there was all this bullshit, to do direct cash pay for a simple scan is emblematic of a very broken system.
Or I want to get a blood draw for a blood test ordered by a doctor at one medical. They do not list the total price, even though that should be automated and very clear since it isn't a procedure that would have any 'complications'.
Even the simple shit is not clear at all and takes way more work than it needs.
A few examples: I wanted to get a CAC scan that my insurance wouldn't cover. My insurance website said that a CAC scan would cost this much with my insurance, along with a total price that would be charged, covered or not. It was something like $80 total. I then called the place to get a CAC scan, and they said since the insurance didn't cover it, the price was $300, and there was no cash pay direct price where I could get it at the listed $80 price, even though they could hypothetically bill the insurance, and the insurance could just bill me the full price. The same place does not have a price listing; there is no online ordering I can do for the CAC scan, I needed to go through a permission process by talking to another doctor to even get the CAC scan in the first place. The fact I even needed to call people, and there was all this bullshit, to do direct cash pay for a simple scan is emblematic of a very broken system.
Or I want to get a blood draw for a blood test ordered by a doctor at one medical. They do not list the total price, even though that should be automated and very clear since it isn't a procedure that would have any 'complications'.
Even the simple shit is not clear at all and takes way more work than it needs.