Posted on 11/16/2019 8:57:40 AM PST by Hojczyk
On my Sunday TV program Full Measure, I’ve done quite a bit of reporting on the capricious cost of medical services at hospitals and how hard it is to get pricing upfront.
President Trump just instituted a new rule requiring hospitals to make that information available.
This could be a game changer.
As I reported the prices hospitals charge vary widely and often do not seem to correlate to anything in particular. Insurance and private payers may be radically overcharged.
From my story comparing prices:
One hospital in the Los Angeles area charged $400 for the knee MRI. But a hospital in smaller Des Moines, Iowa quoted $3,500 ($3,536). That’s eight and a half times as much for the exact same procedure.
Similar dramatic ranges are found within the same region. In Orlando, one hospital charged as little as $877 total. Another charged close to $2,000 ($1,980) and didn’t even include the fee to read the MRI.
Hospitals in Los Angeles charged from $400 to $2,800 ($2,850).
Raleigh-Durham: about a $1,000 ($1,023) to $2,700 ($2,775).
Des Moines also from about $1,000 ($1,071) to $3,500 ($3,536).
Dallas and Fort Worth: $500 ($508) to $4,200 ($4,274).
And the biggest disparity was in the New York City area. The cheapest knee MRI was about $440. Another hospital in the area the most expensive in the survey charged $4,500!
Under President Trump’s new rules, patients will be able to get this information upfront.
According to CNBC, “Hospitals will now be required to post their standard charges for services, which include gross charges, the negotiated rates with insurers and the discounted price a hospital is willing to accept from a patient.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sharylattkisson.com ...
Winning. No ways tarred.
Were is the GOP Senate on health care reform....no where...
Trump all by himself...GOP is useless
And if you are in need of critical care what are you going to do with that info? Obxxx and his minions have screwed the health care system up and even the vet charges more now. Hey, x-ray machines work on humans and animals. Drugs get prescribed for humans and animals.
I was listening to Dennis Prager a year or two ago and he mentioned he was able get an MRI for a hundred bucks by having it done at 10pm somewhere.
bmp
Can you imagine going into Walmart and NOT knowing what something costs until you've already checked out??
And if you are in need of critical care what are you going to do with that info?
...
I think over time prices will even out now that they have to be publicized.
This is a brilliant!
It’s a first step to privatizing health care (or at least allowing private health care), which is the ONLY way costs will be reduced.
I’m not tired of winning!
Set up medical “free trade zones”
American’s need CHOICE over the bloated, corrupt, gerrymandered multi-payer system government has given us
Long overdue. Winning!
I’d love to know NJ’s fee for an MRI. Unless I was misreading, they charged me $100,000 for one. Not making that up.
Not exactly apples to Apples is it… ??
When you going to the hospital for a procedure of any kind… many different variables coming to play. Some of them unseen until unseen tests are taken and unseen/unknown results are discovered.
Medical procedures are not exact science… and can and more often than mot...go off into several different directions.
When you check in the hospital… what you’re hoping for is comprehensive medical treatment. Regardless of the cost.
Having hospitals display their prices… is simply an exercise in futility. And a very silly idea.
Makes me happy that I cannot have an MRI. Outrageous gouging, the insurance will never pay more than their contracted allowable, but the prices they show is what they will try to gouge the uninsured.
They develop these amazing procedures and machines and then make sure no one can have one.
This is the argument my socialist acquaintances always give me: "when you are having a heart attack, are you going to haggle with the hospital?"
The answer is: A free market creates the ample supply of goods and universal access that eliminate the need. When you are out of gas and in a hurry, do you need to haggle with the gas station? Same with food - does the supermarket charge different prices for a fat man and a starving man?
A controlled market destroys access to supply, and thus destroys choice. "Health care" in Cuba is free. Is that someplace you want to have a heart-attack?
LOL! They may even out but like most things, once they head upwards, they ain’t coming back down. And, the, as princess screeching owl calls them, ‘buh-zillionaires’ will still be able to buy better care than us peons. Ain’t capitalism awesome? :-)
“Trump all by himself...GOP is useless”
It needed to be said again.
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