4 ms·

The other day I went to the doctor and had a minor procedure done (I had two moles I wanted removed) and asked "How much will this cost if insurance doesn't cov

by throwaway2016a 10y ago

The other day I went to the doctor and had a minor procedure done (I had two moles I wanted removed) and asked "How much will this cost if insurance doesn't cover it?" The answer: "I don't know" How can you not know what the cost of a routine procedure like that is? If a simple thing like that can't be give a cost what hope do we have? Edit: If anyone is curious, $580 but my insurance covered it.

hkmurakami 10y ago
How big was the medical facility? Might be the case that the doctor genuinely doesn't know since the hospital operations folks determine the price?
- MBCook 10y ago
  That's quite possible. And let's ignore insurance for a moment. How is the doctor supposed to responsibly recommend treatment if they don't have the faintest idea of what it costs? If you need some kind of drug in the doctor can think of to that would probably work just fine, would it be really useful if the doctor knew that one was $1/pill in the other was $45/pill? If the difference in the price for the patient ends up being significant maybe that should be something to take into account. However if you set up the system so that the doctors never actually know what it costs…
- throwaway2016a 10y ago
  Sorry I was sleeping during the last message... but pretty big. Not a Hospital but it is 5 floor and if I were to guess at least 25 doctors.
analog31 10y ago
This is not inconceivable. The doctor may know her own fee, but is also ordering services such as use of the clinic, assistants, supplies, and so forth. She has never had to pay for any of those things. She doesn't even know what business entities she's dealing with, possibly an impenetrable rats nest of LLC's. I've read that over half of all doctors are self employed, meaning that their salaries are not a good measure of their incomes. Were I inclined toward cynicism, I'd say that the purpose of the complexity is to make it impossible for anybody to figure out where the money is going, or who is actually gouging whom. Somebody is gouging us, but we'll never know who, and everybody can claim it's somebody else. In my view, the only way to get to the bottom of where the money is going, is to manage the whole thing. This may be why nationalized systems cost so much less. The people who are gouging would stick out like a sore thumb.
- niels_olson 10y ago
  > also ordering services such as use of the clinic, assistants, supplies, and so forth For things like moles, a big chunk is the pathologist's professional fee, as well as the technical fees for whatever additional studies may be needed. "It's just a mole" can become "I'm very sorry, but you have melanoma, we'll be excising most of your cheek on Tuesday."

hkmurakami 10y ago

How big was the medical facility? Might be the case that the doctor genuinely doesn't know since the hospital operations folks determine the price?

MBCook 10y ago
That's quite possible. And let's ignore insurance for a moment. How is the doctor supposed to responsibly recommend treatment if they don't have the faintest idea of what it costs? If you need some kind of drug in the doctor can think of to that would probably work just fine, would it be really useful if the doctor knew that one was $1/pill in the other was $45/pill? If the difference in the price for the patient ends up being significant maybe that should be something to take into account. However if you set up the system so that the doctors never actually know what it costs…
throwaway2016a 10y ago
Sorry I was sleeping during the last message... but pretty big. Not a Hospital but it is 5 floor and if I were to guess at least 25 doctors.

analog31 10y ago

This is not inconceivable. The doctor may know her own fee, but is also ordering services such as use of the clinic, assistants, supplies, and so forth. She has never had to pay for any of those things. She doesn't even know what business entities she's dealing with, possibly an impenetrable rats nest of LLC's. I've read that over half of all doctors are self employed, meaning that their salaries are not a good measure of their incomes. Were I inclined toward cynicism, I'd say that the purpose of the complexity is to make it impossible for anybody to figure out where the money is going, or who is actually gouging whom. Somebody is gouging us, but we'll never know who, and everybody can claim it's somebody else. In my view, the only way to get to the bottom of where the money is going, is to manage the whole thing. This may be why nationalized systems cost so much less. The people who are gouging would stick out like a sore thumb.

niels_olson 10y ago
> also ordering services such as use of the clinic, assistants, supplies, and so forth For things like moles, a big chunk is the pathologist's professional fee, as well as the technical fees for whatever additional studies may be needed. "It's just a mole" can become "I'm very sorry, but you have melanoma, we'll be excising most of your cheek on Tuesday."