Posted on 08/07/2018 2:21:58 AM PDT by markomalley
Hospitals will be required to post online a list of their standard charges under a rule finalized Thursday by the Trump administration.
While hospitals are already required to make this information public on request, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said the new rule would require the info be posted online to "encourage price transparency" and improve "public accessibility."
Starting Jan. 1, hospitals will be required to update the information annually.
The CMS said it is also considering how to "allow consumers to more easily access relevant healthcare data and compare providers."
Increasing price transparency has been a priority for the administration as a way to drive down health-care costs.
"This is a small step towards providing our beneficiaries with price transparency, but our work in this area is only just beginning," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a speech last month. "Price transparency is core to patient empowerment and making sure American patients have the tools they need so they can make the best decisions for them and their families."
I suppose it would be pointless to mention that there is a bit of a difference between a 2x4 and major surgery? But to use your analogy, if you call up and ask for the price of a 2x4 would the guy on the phone be able to answer you? Not without knowing the details - 8 foot, 10 foot, 12 foot, stud length? Pine or redwood? Plain or pressure treated? Yet you expect the hospital to quote a set price on open heart surgery or knee replacement or whatever without knowing all the details of what will be involved in the operation.
You’re new here. There used to be a Freeper “Commontator” who had cancer and no insurance. He was under 65 and paid his own bill and “recovered”. It was $400,000. Later he turned 65 and his ailment came back. Got the same treatment, didn’t cost him a cent out of pocket. I can guarantee you that the government did not pay out any where near $400,000 for his treatment. Unfortunately, he is long gone and his words of wisdom are not available for us now.
Also post the Medicare, Medicaid and insurance rates so you know you are being overcharged.
Obviously not.
That went completely over your head. The point being, the clerk is not going to ask....“You want someone else to do your work for you?”. The clerk is going to ask questions to be sure both are on the same page. That’s their job. And yes, calling about a 2x4x8’ (notice I included the footage again...which you must’ve missed in my original comment) is much different than major surgery. But, the person quoting the surgery price should naturally include a caveat RE other possible prices if there are complications. That should be their job.
Nope, I actually saw the video on YouTube.
not a bad idea ... this is a move towards transparent pricing that Rand Paul has been advocating for quite some time
“It’s the “providers.”:”
it is INDEED the hospitals ... you ever looked at what a cardiologist gets paid for a two hour session to open and stent closed coronary arteries vs. what the hospital charges for the cath lab, the disposables used in the cath lab, the stents themselves and the overnight stay in the ICU?
Doc who saved your life is lucky to get paid $600.00, hospital gets tens of thousands ...
“Believe it or not, this information is already available and your insurance provider has been using it for about six years.”
but has it been conveniently available online for ordinary mortals to easily look it up? haven’t seen ANYTHING like that for any clinic, ER, or hospital i’ve ever been to ... THAT would be “new”, wouldn’t it?
You haven't looked.
I can guarantee you that no insurance company would have paid $400,000 for that treatment either.
MORE WINNING! Surley not perfect but a step in the right direction. Medicine in this country is a monopoly that needs to have its many self-serving protections ripped off and with extreme prejudice. Medicine is a right for all and a privilege to provide that comes at great public expense.
There is just no good reason medicine should consume one-fifth of our economy and be bent on shaking the last nickel out of our pockets while we die.
Not really, no. Though my response to your analogy may have been a bit above you.
But, the person quoting the surgery price should naturally include a caveat RE other possible prices if there are complications. That should be their job.
So you're admitting that since no to patients are the same and no two surgery situations are alike then it's impossible to say just how much a procedure might cost. The best you can hope for is an average amount, and that is already available at the website I posted earlier as well as other sites. Why is Trump trying to reinvent the wheel? Especially when how can we expect hospitals to post anything but the lowest cost, best case scenario since that's what makes them look the best? Wouldn't the most accurate information have to come from a third party?
They going to post that it cost $2K for ear piercing if they do it during delivery?
I want to know the Hospital’s RATINGS both in hospital and ER; we have 2 within the same driving distance and I’d not take a dying dog to either, they are that INCOMPETENT. Even the Nurses tell you not to use them that live in your neighborhood. 1 is located in high crime/drug area. Other is just a crappy hospital.
And we can chose any Hospital or doctor we want as we are Medicare/Tricare Life (Ret. Military over 65).
I take my own meds, and take them on my body’s schedule it’s use to. Plus I take a bottle of Tylenol. And make sure they don’t confiscate them. Even take my own bottle water, I’m not drinking melted ice I can taste the Chems in. Don’t eat the food either, it’s Over salted, red dyes, and that crap horse manure tasting Ensure is SOY based, which is a big NO. Fiber is a NO too.
And if you stick EKG leads on me you best put paper tape under them I break out in huge itchy welts that have to be treated with Predisone. And when I tell you to use a 22 gauge IV Cath, go find 1. I’m sick and tired of Blown Veins simply because mine are tiny even if I’m not dehydrated. Train your tech to know what size a patients veins are.
Sure I have. Locally, one hospital group posts online.
“Though my response to your analogy may have been a bit above you.”
Right. Like a 2x4x8’ is a bit above you.
Cool! Where? I never could find it.
I don’t know who your cardiologist is...but six hundred bucks is pretty shy.
Just curious, do you have any idea of what goes into building and maintaining an operating room or ICU unit? They have to consider stuff that I never would thought of in a million years before I started working at a hospital.
EVERYTHING is regulated. Every thing. Even in a crappy hospital. The redundancy alone must add 50-80% of what you might consider reasonable.
For example, I have to have at least two qualified personnel on at all times to monitor codes and alarm panels. The bathroom is in the isolated work area because we have to be encapsulated from the general public and unauthorized personnel. The fire panels are automated. My folks sit there. (They have plenty to do with other items). They must both be in there.
I knew guys in missile silos that had more freedom in their jobs.
Don’t get me started on the jihad against cardboard. Even in non clinical areas.
THAT stuff is what costs a ton of money. It’s got nothing to do with quality of care.
The next time you are going in for a procedure, call the hospital’s quality and compliance office. They have it. Of course it comes with the “shit happens” disclaimer. Then as them what the out of pocket/cash price is.
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