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It's worth noting that Iowa is in particular trouble because of a single patient that costs ~1M a month[1]. In a relatively small market you end up with an unst
by harryh 9y ago
It's worth noting that Iowa is in particular trouble because of a single patient that costs ~1M a month[1]. In a relatively small market you end up with an unstable situation when there are more than 1 insurers because none of them know if they will have to take on this very expensive patient in any given year.
1. https://www.balloon-juice.com/2017/04/21/catching-the-falling-knife-in-iowa/ https://www.balloon-juice.com/2017/04/21/catching-the-fallin...
- rasz 9y agoHow exactly do you run a $1 million/month health bill? In EU that would mean one open heart surgery/heart/lung transplant done by world class specialists flown from all over the place every single month. This sounds like a scam.
- harryh 9y agoApparently the patient is a teenage boy with hemophilia. I'm fairly confident that it isn't a scam. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/06/01/iowa-teens-1-million-per-month-illness-no-longer-secret/360919001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/06/01/io...
- rasz 9y agoHemophilia Federation of America: "A million dollars per month is something we've never heard of," sure makes it sound like a scam, maybe by hospital?
- harryh 9y agoGiven that the insurance companies know exactly who the patient is, exactly what treatments he is receiving, and exactly when and where they are happening it seems like it would be pretty easy to uncover a scam if there was one. And they have a lot of incentive to do so!
- rasz 9y agoWould you consider $1 mil/month a good incentive to scam?
- TYPE_FASTER 9y agoWell, that's coming from the insurer, so I'm sure they're not exaggerating (/s)... > Iowa’s largest health insurer, Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield, has cited the case as an extreme example of exploding health care costs.