Make sure the recommended services are actually necessary: You don't want to short-change your health, but you also don't want to undergo needless treatment.I once saved a hundred bucks by asking the intake nurse: "Is it ok if I wait until after I see the doctor to take the X-ray?"
It was ok and the Doc said no need to x-ray.
Another time, I was told I needed to schedule a follow up visit to get the results of a certain test. This visit would cost $125. I asked if the doctor or his staff could call me with the results. "Yes." Cost for this? Zero.
It's amazing how much waste is built into the process. I think a large part of that is because, in most cases, there is no price pressure because the consumer is not the payer.
It’s amazing how much waste is built into the process. I think a large part of that is because, in most cases, there is no price pressure because the consumer is not the payer.
You are being very gracious. I tend to believe that much of the waste is intentional.
It’s amazing how much waste is built into the process.
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Ask the lawyers why that is. If a doc doesn’t order a certain test, and it ends up that test SHOULD have been ordered to rule out a specific disorder, the doc is going to get sued.
Doctors can’t win in our litigious society.
What Soviet Medicine Teaches US
“In order to receive minimal attention by doctors and nursing personnel, patients had to pay bribes.”
You want to increase corruption? All you got to do is centralize power. Market forces are so strong that even in a system with total control, and where everything is “free”, scarce products will always go to the highest bidder. In this case the “owner” of the product or service is the one that controls access to it and he will use all his creative power to make the most of his “ownership”.
You want to decrease corruption? Diffuse power as much as possible. That is why capitalistic countries under the rule of law will always have less corruption than authoritarian countries.
That is precisely why health care, courtesy of health insurance, is so overpriced. Nobody cares to shop around because "someone else" i.e. insurance companies, are paying the bill.