2 ms·

I had a similar experience for a minor hand surgery. The thing is, when I called the insurance company (or was it the billing dept at the hospital? I don't rem

I had a similar experience for a minor hand surgery. The thing is, when I called the insurance company (or was it the billing dept at the hospital? I don't remember) they went like, "oh, that's wrong" and like magic $5000 in bills disappeared. How many people just pay without asking? How many people don't care because it's the insurance co covering the bill? The whole system just seems rife with inefficiency.

falcolas 10y ago
My parents actually had a doctor's office say "why do you care, insurance is covering it", and the insurance company say "we'll get it fixed, but you realize you won't get anything in return". Yeah, the system is deeply busted.
- mhneu 10y ago
  Lack of price transparency is a huge, huge problem. Without price transparency you can't have a market system -- America already has a socialist health care system because no one can price shop.
  - m-j-fox 10y ago
    http://www.pamf.org/forpatients/pamf-health-care-costs-and-charges.html http://www.pamf.org/forpatients/pamf-health-care-costs-and-c... Your Better Health Care organizations do publish prices. The outfit across the street from PAMF does not publish prices and as you could guess, they end up being at least 10 times higher. For everything.
  - majormajor 10y ago
    Price transparency isn't that useful without outcome transparency. Outcome transparency without thought about capacity leads to other issues: the best don't have enough time to serve everyone. We need to figure out how to improve the baseline rather than improve the top-end, which is what things are currently focused on (if my insurance has no problem with me going to a more expensive, highly-regarded provider, why won't I try to get in there?). How is a "market" supposed to work for life-saving surgery? I would be very interested in how much money is wasted on wrong treatments, unnecessary tests, fixing mistakes like disease transfer in hospitals, versus just paying the best doctors and surgeons for their time.
bjelkeman-again 10y ago
$5000 bills showing up incorrectly isn't what I would call inefficiency. Attempted fraud maybe.
maxxxxx 10y ago
In other industries you would call health care billing practices fraud. They just make up charges and when you complain they disappear. They just try what they can get away with.

falcolas 10y ago

My parents actually had a doctor's office say "why do you care, insurance is covering it", and the insurance company say "we'll get it fixed, but you realize you won't get anything in return". Yeah, the system is deeply busted.

mhneu 10y ago
Lack of price transparency is a huge, huge problem. Without price transparency you can't have a market system -- America already has a socialist health care system because no one can price shop.
- m-j-fox 10y ago
  http://www.pamf.org/forpatients/pamf-health-care-costs-and-charges.html http://www.pamf.org/forpatients/pamf-health-care-costs-and-c... Your Better Health Care organizations do publish prices. The outfit across the street from PAMF does not publish prices and as you could guess, they end up being at least 10 times higher. For everything.
- majormajor 10y ago
  Price transparency isn't that useful without outcome transparency. Outcome transparency without thought about capacity leads to other issues: the best don't have enough time to serve everyone. We need to figure out how to improve the baseline rather than improve the top-end, which is what things are currently focused on (if my insurance has no problem with me going to a more expensive, highly-regarded provider, why won't I try to get in there?). How is a "market" supposed to work for life-saving surgery? I would be very interested in how much money is wasted on wrong treatments, unnecessary tests, fixing mistakes like disease transfer in hospitals, versus just paying the best doctors and surgeons for their time.

bjelkeman-again 10y ago

$5000 bills showing up incorrectly isn't what I would call inefficiency. Attempted fraud maybe.

maxxxxx 10y ago

In other industries you would call health care billing practices fraud. They just make up charges and when you complain they disappear. They just try what they can get away with.