Trump announces rule requiring hospitals to reveal rates

Did you know that it's possible, for example, to pay less for an MRI if you don't use your insurance?

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/01/few-patients-use-this-trick-that-saves-on-medical-bills.html

Using CHC, I looked for a list of local MRI providers. The cheapest scan I found was about $400 — but it was exclusively for patients who were willing to bypass insurance altogether and pay cash.

Being willing to cut out the middleman and pay directly can get you a better deal on your health care, “especially if you have a high deductible,” Pinder says. The difference in cost effectively amounts to “a penalty for having insurance.”

 

I don't see a benefit. Reducing healthcare costs can only come from prevention, but that would reduce profits for the food and drug industry. No politician would bite the hand that elects them. This is a step in the wrong direction.

 

You don't see the difference between a $4000 MRI and a $1000 MRI at two different locations?

Would you eat at a restaurant that didn't tell you how much the food was until you ate it?

Not to mention....this would help fight medicare fraud by requiring pricing publicly available.

 

The fee sćhedule rates that hospitals, Doctor groups, or other provider services contracted can and often did vary from insurance company yo insurance company. Furthermore the reimbursement rates for Medicare or Medicaid or Tri care will not be the same as with private insurance companies.

So you think that providers should display all the various reimbursement rates they accept??

Trump's idea is stupid because not only not practical but it is just another BS reality TV trick to divert, obstruct, and confuse the less informed.

 

I will give him an "atta-boy" for this. Seems reasonable.

 

Even if you are having elective surgery done and or have the time for needed surgery ( or other treatment) which included not required right away you need to look at the entire treatment package. What good is a cheaper MRI at location b if you do not know how good their radiologists read ( interpret) the results. Does the surgeon you chose have confidence in the cheap MRI provider? How about coordination between your Doc your surgeon and the radiologist? If they are part of the same group they can see your records and make consultation and coordination proper. So what if you find a cheaper anesthesiology group,over in WestbBejesus Hootterville but they do not practice in your cheaper than dirt Hospital. So you going to check and find a hospital that has low room rates but that is not the hospital where your surgery will take place.
What if you need chemo even after surgery? You going to check Chemo R Us who operate out of the former Toys R Us locations.

 

Expecting a president to follow presidential norms, be transparent and also honor campaign pledges is “TDS”. Ok...

Remember that when a democrat takes office.

 

I don’t know what that acronym stands for.

 

The Supreme Court ruled it legal...

 

Stupid would be thinking that we can shop for services, based upon knowing the reimbursement rates, but shopping for insurance is different. I never negotiated a plan, that's what the Union was for.

We also cannot know when something goes wrong, the service provided may be easy to determine a reimbursement rate for if nothing goes wrong, then you have an "episode" with one person in recovery and after seeing the light wake up with six standing there with worried faces; I paid zero for dying.

It's really no different than when your employer (or the Union) gives you several plans to choose from, they do all the hard lifting negotiating, this information is going to be useless for most of us. Only under certain special circumstances might more information be helpful, if you are tired of the House of Pain.

I had a kidney stone, so I went to the doctor and he scheduled a procedure I had before, and told me there was no other way, but knowing what someone with better insurance (at the same company) got a newer and better procedure, which I did not mention, I told the doctor "no, I would rather lose my kidney," then he said, "there may be another way." That better way was reserved for the better plans, so in and out in three hours, instead of two DAYS. I mentioned it in a debate class in College, mentioned the name of the device, and a nurse that worked at that hospital and would have been there for that old procedure said I was lying, that such a device didn't exist, she knew about the basket and the tank, so she asked about it and later had to apologize. The device was in a trailer, mobile, and a SECRET (the nurse working there did not know it existed, to the point of calling me a LIAR).

If those that negotiate for your benefits (aerospace unions...) know what providers accept, maybe that nurse wouldn't be in the dark, maybe the dogs who would otherwise suffer at the House of Pain could get a better plan.

You know more than me, I know that, I just know that without information those we hire to negotiate for us, such as Unions..., can't make an informed choice. If we don't even know the device exists and is reserved for the better plan, how the fracking hell do we even know we want that plan?

I had to threaten to lose a kidney to get the truth.

 

thats why i only go to the state owned & run university hospitals they have all the latest tech & procedures...
those private shitholes are the snob shops because most people still think "you get what you pay for" ergo would rather spend the most possible money...

 

Might want to revisit that. They actually changed the definition of the fine to a tax. Contrary to the legislation. The SC acted outside the Constitution as well. I know many are OK with that as long as it suits their purpose...

 

You just made my point

 

The partisan blindness on display in this thread is beyond comprehension. "I hate this plan only because it is Trump's idea....!!!" At least some Trump haters can acknowledge the benefit. That's encouraging.

 

honestly, I've seen the ER brought up more than once in previous discussions about transparency in health care costs and i've always felt that was a silly argument to be honest, similar to someone suggesting that the wall wasn't needed because of Visa overstays.

Its quite obvious that when you go to the ER that many times your choices are quite limited, although not always the case, for example when my wife had the Flu last year we ended up at the ER at midnight on a Saturday because she was having breathing issues the kept getting worse but we still had 3 different ER's to choose from, all 15 or so minutes from home. When I dislocated my shoulder 2 years ago I had choices, In both cases we called ahead and asked how long the lines were, actually one of the ER's has the average current wait on their website.

If someone accidentally splits my head open with a rock, we're not going to shop around while the blood pours out, obviously, but the vast majority of medical services are NOT provided in the ER, they are scheduled in advance, sometimes weeks in advance.

 

doesn't change anything, universal healthcare is not needed here, because anyone can be treated at most hospitals whether insured or not, then if given a bill for it, they can easily counter offer for pennies on the dollar with extremely low monthly payments while avoiding negative impacts to their credit scores...

 

An MRI is only as good as the doctor looking at it. There is a difference between price and cost.

 

What's the argument to not publish pricing?

 

And, as I pointed out earlier, you can check prices at local ERs before you have blood spurting out of your head.

 

Make HealthCare Great Again

 

It distracts from the real issue that is the record levels of illness in the US. We would not be debating heath care, obamacare, medicare for all, the price of and MRI, if Americans were healthy. As long as it is profitable to make and keep Americans sick, there is no solution any politician from either party can come up with.

 

That's like saying knowing how much lettuce is at two different stores leads to more E Coli

 

I can't think of any reason to oppose this. Maybe hospitals/insurance companies with shady deals don't want people to have access to the actual prices? Who knows. So far the only argument in opposition on this thread seems to be "I don't like it because Trump did it", which is no serious argument at all.

 

That is not a reasonable comparison. If people ate more lettuce, we would not be having this discussion. People are consuming foods that lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc, then when symptoms show up, we mask symptoms so that the behavior can continue. Both the foods and drugs are subsidized with tax dollars. We are fatter and sicker than ever and it is getting worse. Lets not pretend that more government interference makes things better.

 

I still don't see how publishing prices has anything to do with how many people are, or are not, sick.

In my opinion, the reason so many people are sick is because they're scared to go to the doctor as they have no idea how much it will cost.

Therefore, they wait until they have no choice.

We're literally talking about the only thing that we purchase that is completely blind.