Patients say health pricing must change
With emergency care clinics closed at that hour, the
"I spent a total of 20 minutes in the room -- 10 of that waiting for a nurse and doctor to come. They took my blood pressure and temperature. It didn't take the doctor long to figure out it was a tooth infection. They told me to go see a dentist,"
He was shocked, however, when he received the service bill,
"You're basically paying because of the equipment and everything that is available to use -- even if you don't use it," he said he was told.
"I think the cost should be based on what you actually received, not what's available. The way they charge has got to be changed," he said.
Citing patient privacy laws,
"Something is going to be done on every patient that walks in the door. There will be some some kind of specimen. There is a list of rules of things that have to be done because they walked into the E.R.," said
Bigger firms, bills
"I had decided pretty early on that despite the fact that the more therapy, the better, I just couldn't afford it, mostly due to the fact that it was a new year and my deductible started over. So I only went three times in January, and then I stopped going, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise," she said.
The business was sold to
She called the billing department at
"We don't have the specifics of what they were charging before they joined
"When the rehab became part of
Dr.
Physicians and other health-care providers have learned they can demand higher fees from the federal government and from private insurance companies if they are affiliated with a large hospital system such as Mercy or
"This is part of what's driving doctors out of independent practice. They can make more money if they become part [of] the systems,"
The hospital has been involved in a lengthy battle with the FTC over its acquisition of
That case's judge,
The addition of St. Luke's to its group would give it even more clout, and "the merger would allow
The
Savvier patients
Health-care spending grew more slowly than the U.S. economy from 2010 to 2012, according to a recent report by the federal
"Patients are getting more engaged in the process of making choices, driven by rising deductibles, now creeping up to
This desire to find the best price for nonemergency procedures has given rise to new businesses such as consumer-oriented websites, where patients can type in their ZIP Codes and get estimates on the cost of a select group of medical procedures in their area.
"We are trying to demystify the chargemaster," he said. "We knew for the most part that charges were a strong indicator for the consumer, but we have moved to price ranges because we are trying to get closer to what are patients likely to pay out of pocket."
When asked how he is able to obtain the information to provide price-range estimates on his website,
The website, which launched in 2009, has 100,000 unique visits each month, he said.
Executives at all local hospital systems said they are in the process of developing some sort of internal system -- such as a hotline -- to help consumers price shop.
There are some hospitals in larger cities, with more resources, that are doing it right,
"This kind of giving an estimate is fairly new for hospitals in the retail environment," he said. "So what can be perceived as hesitancy, it's really about setting the expectations for patients."
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