Posted on 12/27/2018 7:21:03 AM PST by buckalfa
Many Americans have left the hospital concerned or surprised at how much or little they've spent for a service there.
Well, thanks to a federal law, there will soon be more transparency on how much you'll be spending after your hospital visit.
Starting on January 1, 2019, a federal law will require hospitals to post a master list online for how much the facility charges for a service.
Often times, little to no price transparency can make it difficult for consumers to price compare.
Other times the final bill is almost never the same as the "sticker price" due to other charges such as insurance, and other discounts or premium charges, before a final charge is determined.
“The list prices are so high that the vast majority of hospitals don’t even try to collect list prices from uninsured patients,” said Benedic Ippolito, with the American Enterprise Institute, who has researched hospital list prices.
The federal law is being brought out as a measure to improve competition and help educate consumers, according to the Journal-News.
“We are just beginning on price transparency,” Seema Verma, head of U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid told the Associated Press. “We know that hospitals have this information and we’re asking them to post what they have online.”
But real transparency comes when consumers can easily see what they will pay to a provider based on their insurance benefits, said Thomas Campanella, Baldwin Wallace University health care MBA program director. He said some insurance companies are providing that information through price comparison tools.
“I almost see it being more of a political ‘look at what we did,’” Campanella said of the requirement to post list prices.
I am glad you are ok. However, be prepared to receive a bill from the hospital, the ER doctor and the radiologist that read your CAT scan.
I have Cigna health insurance through my employer. I am in my third year of a high deductible plan. The most I can pay out o pocket in one year is $6000/person. I pay about $400/month for my family plan in pretax payroll deductions. In addition I put another $400/month in my HSA in pretax. My company puts another $100/month in my HSA. The maximum you can contribute annually to an HSA is $6000. Out of that I pay for any doctor visits and prescriptions. Cigna still negotiates the bills from the providers. So, there is still an incentive to go to in network doctors, etc. Also, preventative medical appointments are free such as yearly physicals, mammograms, flu shots, etc.
Providers have to bill high in order to receive the full reimbursement for the service.
Yep, they are good at 2 for one billing. A relative had a double hernia operation several years ago, and was astounded to see that the hospital billed everything as if two separate surgeries had been done. 2 X on the anesthesia, OR, recovery, etc., etc.
The sad thing is political discourse has shifted from debating the principles of freedom within a republic to that of how to preserve power through mob rule.
the most honest pricing would be for the insurance companies to price out what they will pay for each procedure and what is your responsibility instead of the coy we dont know...
Yeah. Most folks around here are thinking only $1500. That sounds pretty cheap to me, though. We’ll see.
Up until a couple years ago our company paid for a nurse to come in a give flu shots to everyone in he office including their families. The boss figured if just ONE of our 30 straight commission lumber traders did not miss work because of sickness it paid for itself.
Then they started giving them away for free at all the drug stores: CVS, Walgreens, etc. The first year they sent out a reminder to go get your free flu shot. Not this year. We have had at least four traders out sick with the flu in the last month for two days each.
BTW, what happened was I had just finished playing bass for the church service and everyone was leaving. I was having an ocular migraine and suddenly realized I could not tell you the music director’s name, my age, nor my birthday.
Interestingly, I’m fine now but the whole event itself is a blur. Normally I would NEVER allow my wife to take me to an emergency room unless I’m bleeding out, but, oddly, I let her. That alone suggests something was going on.
Insane, isn’t it? And don’t go looking at med-evac helicopter rides to a hospital.
I give all my employees a HSA account. I am over 65 now so no can do. They are a bonus for people.
I received some bills from my insurance company on what they pay.. It shows cost then what they pay the hospital from their agreement.
In the middle of a surgery that has had complications will they wake the patient to explain, “We have done all that we can do for the price that we discussed”?
Next thing I’d like to see is country of origin labels on food stuffs.
Howmuchyagot?
The hospital has to staff 24/7/365; ER, OR, Lab, X-ray, Labor and delivery, Nursing units, Security, Food services, Laundry, Equipment, Maintenance crews, HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Water....
EXACTLY
His car insurance should be paying those bills, if not him.
Praying for your son.
Sounds like the company would do well to start having the shots offered at work again. I don’t think they are “free”, at CVS, etc. I think those places bill to a person’s health insurance, and that there is maybe no deductible on a flu shot?
So the provider that would come to the worksite could do the same and bill to insurance for each.
It does seem that, if the employer makes it easy and convenient, people are much more likely to get the shot.
About 10 years ago I had an attack of Vertigo sitting right here in my office on a Tuesday morning. The whole world just started spinning counter clockwise. I staggered into the men’s room and threw up my breakfast. I could not stand. I was drenched in sweat like I had just run a marathon.
They called an ambulance. I went to the ER hospital. They gave me every test you could think of: EKGs, CAT scans, MRI, Xray. I spent the night. The neurosurgeon said you did not have heart attack, you did not have a stroke, you don’t have a brain tumor but were not sure what happened to you. Therefore, it must be acute vertigo. Basically, your equilibrium between your left and right inner ear gets screwed up. I missed the rest of the week of work. It just went away on its own. They sent me for a hearing test.
Anyway the bills were over $10K. I had bills from 6 different doctors. Most of them I did not remember seeing. This was before Obamacare. It cost me about $2500 after insurance. That was when the insurance paid 80% and I paid 20% up to a max of $3000/year.
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