MEDICAL PRICES – Force Their Posting By Kent Welton

[Demeter]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kent_wel_071007_medical_prices__96_for.htm



We need laws to force the posting of medical service prices. Show me a medical provider’s office or lab today where you can see what the prices of the various services and tests are?

What other business hides its prices from its customers? Where else do you buy first and learn the price later?

The invisibility of price makes competition impossible, and so makes price shopping by consumers impossible.

The setup is perfect... for the provider, for the rapacious profit-oriented hospital, drug company, insurers and the labs. Its all a big secret rip-off cabal. And we’re not even talking about price controls and setting prices, we’re simply requesting here that they be posted in waiting rooms in a readable size type font.

Competition may then do the rest, assuming real-life anti-trust and anti-competition enforcements – a big if in Republican land.

In any case, its all a big mystery today when we walk in and we either have an insurance card or we do not. With a card, we hand over the information and are then escorted into a labyrinth wherein everyone but the customer/consumer knows the price(s) of services and how they are calculated. "Why worry? You have insurance don’t you? Sorry, I can’t tell you what the services or tests cost."

In addition to the lack of public and visible price tags, there are often secret and special arrangements with each doctor or group, and pricing information which is beyond our knowledge or retrieval. Recent audits also reveal widespread fraud-in-the-inducement in the selling of health insurance plans. Representative Bart Stupak, chairman of the investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he had "verified countless stories of deceptive sales practices by insurance agents who prey upon the elderly and disabled to sell them expensive and inappropriate private Medicare plans."

Patient rights? Forget it. Real patient rights begin with posted prices for medical services... and some semblance of competition in a field gone for-profit, and where the only price talks are between insurance companies and medical groups.

Why do you think private, profit-seeking, businesses were so eager to get into this field? Where else could you "compete" without competing? Where else could you just tell the government (read taxpayers) what to pay? This is Blackwater, no-bid, cost-plus, contract, medicine – i.e., a very sick and corrupt system in which the penalties and enforcement for fraud and collusion should be greatly increased.....





Authors Website: TheCenterForBalance.org

Authors Bio: Author, Exec. Dir. The Center For Balance. Websites: PanditPress.com, OligarchyUSA.com, PublicCentralBank.com, EditorFreedom.com, FascismUSA.COM & more

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[Dr.Phool]

1. Also post the "Network Negotiated Prices".

You know, the amount you have to pay if you don't have insurance, versus what the insurance company will have to pay.

[mike_c]

2. big recommendation for this post....

This is one of my pet peeves. Providers negotiate reimbursement costs with insurance companies then keep the information "secret" so that patients can't find out in advance what a procedure or treatment will cost.

[Bitwit1234]

3. I think what is the most outrageous is the drug prices

Our government GRANTS drug and pharmaceutical companies the money to experiment and process drugs and medicines.

Then when they are developed, the drug company OWNS them and charges the public high prices for them. If we subsidize them in the first place how come they sell to foreign companies at less than half price and we pay thur the nose. That is a disgrace.

[midnight]

4. I would love to know upfront the prices for procedures, and how

many times,if a surgeon, they have performed a procedure. Put it up on their web site, and in their office next to their diploma.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Maybe, but...

do you really want the cheapest doctor working on your only body?

Architects, lawyers, plumbers, and a whole host of others don't generally publicize their fees and often enough the best ones tend to charge more. And the jobs they do are not always simple enough to lend themselves to flat fees. They do let you know their hourly fees, but medical types haven't been big on billing by the hour.

[kcass1954]

6. I don't necessarily want the cheapest doctor. But price does matter, and sometimes

you have to balance out quality and price. Even with my relatively decent health insurance, I'm still out nearly $800 this year for office visits, deductibles and copays. The specialist I'm seeing next week won't accept the blood work my primary did, so I'm going this afternoon to have it done again. Of the $200 or so, my insurance will pick up most of the cost, but I'll still be on the hook for $40-something. And this is just my medical costs, not the dental, and nothing for any other family members.

If you call my ex-husband the plumber and ask for a price, there's no run-around about the cost. The service call and 1st hour of labor are $xx (I don't know what his real rates are because he doesn't charge me for labor). I also know that certain repairs are at a flat cost - 40-gallon electric water heater, easy out-easy in, is $xxx. He doesn't advertise his rates, but there's no bullshit if you ask for an estimate. And he doesn't charge for the estimate.