So long as third party payment exists, there will never be “control” on health care costs.
(Unnecessary services are the leading driver of waste)
Until we have legal reform, those services will continue to be performed.
For years we thankfully had minimal need for doctors and hospitals. Then my wife had two knees replaced and I had a colonoscopy after my brother was diagnosed with colon cancer. This meant that I had to find a new primary care physician and have a full physical for the first time in three years.
WRT my wife’s surgery, the bills were an eye-opener. The difference between the face rate and the rate negotiated by BCBS is astounding to the point of farce. Clearly there is a method in this madness and I would love to read an empirical expose of pricing and billing practices.
As to my own experience, I was struck or rather astonished by the selection of tests and procedures based upon what my insurance would cover. Fortunately we have pretty good insurance though a very large deductible. Defensive medicine may well play a role, but I suspect that the doctors have incentives within their practices to maximize revenues per patient and this likely plays far more of a role in driving health costs.
“educating patients to become more savvy consumers.”
Until all healthcare is paid for “out of pocket” this will never happen.
actually does not surprise me as I lived in England and saw how Govt health care wasted a lot of money
I remain convinced that insurance as it presently works is a bad thing. People see it as “something for nothing”, and the medical industry sees it as a source of endless money.
If people had to pay their own way, the price of medical care would drop dramatically, probably with little or no loss of quality. That would also give people a lot more incentive to live healthier, fitter lives.
I think avoiding processed food, then eating lots of wild game along with plants you raise yourself is a real plan for a healthier life. You’ll at least get some exercise and fresh air hunting the game and growing the plants. ;-)
We don’t need no stinkin’ 2000+ page Obamacare takeover of the medical market to get to our medical savings,
just get us sorry-ass consumers involved so that we can monitor our health costs.
(How about a personal signoff on doctor bills, with someone telling us the meaning of all the codes, and a percentage copay on all these bills, before the doctor can submit the bill to the payer, whether it be the government or an insurance co. —No fixed co-pay, a percentage of the bill!)
On reviewing my insurance statements a few years ago, I found out that my dermatologist, whose assistants hit some spots with liquid nitrogen, was always reimbursed at 100%;
while my cardiologist keeping me alive caring for my A-Fib, would always get reimbursed at 57% of his submitted bill, and couldn’t get any reimbursement for monthly blood test monitoring by his team of nurses.
I said “Doc, you’ve got to get more creative in your billing process, ‘cause you’re getting screwed!” He laughed, and said that he was going to see if he could find a code to provide dermatology services to my heart.
The system is broken, and we don’t need a government takeover, just some simple changes to get our hands around $billions in savings.
The best fraud and waste detector as well as the best outcome assessment is a healthcare consumer paying for their own healthcare with their own money.
Muzzle trial lawyers.