4 ms·

> Hospitals should post prices of their procedures in the lobby. A surgeon gets $500 to repair a hernia and the hospital pulls in $5k for the ancillary services

> Hospitals should post prices of their procedures in the lobby. A surgeon gets $500 to repair a hernia and the hospital pulls in $5k for the ancillary services Cost for repairing hernia is not exactly the same for every patient though. Depends on the severity, general health of the patient and a million other things. Not sure if its even possible to put an upfront price. Even if they did, how do patients know beforehand what exactly they need to figure how much they are going to pay. Maybe that works for simple things like a flu shot but seems impossible to for anything even slightly more involved.

PeterisP 9y ago
The same reasons would apply elsewhere, they're not USA-specific, so they don't explain why it's not possible to do the same thing that's successfully done elsewhere. Sure, there's some inherent variance always - the same thing happens in many industries and doesn't prevent them from offering fixed quotes; the service provider is the one best qualified to estimate the expected variance in their costs and offer appropriate pricing. Sure, there may be special requirements that justify charging extra for a particular case; that's not an obstacle from telling the customer about that beforehand. Well, not in ER, but most care is not ER.
- dominotw 9y ago
  > The same reasons would apply elsewhere, they're not USA-specific, so they don't explain why it's not possible to do the same thing that's successfully done elsewhere. I 've never seen a chart with prices for hernia in the lobby , anywhere that I've lived( I am not from USA). Where has it been successfully done?
  - PeterisP 9y ago
    Well, it's not literally placed in the lobby (since the price chart is big and different locations/types/severities of e.g. hernia mean different types of operations, and the choice of which type of operation should be chosen is generally not made by you but by the consulting doctor) but it's conceptually the same in that the price list is publicly available and you know beforehand about what exactly you're going to be charged. E.g. a link to a random local (to me) hospital's pricelist (not in English, sorry) https://www.aslimnica.lv/lv/content/neirokirurgijas-operacijas https://www.aslimnica.lv/lv/content/neirokirurgijas-operacij... starts with two different procedures for herniated spinal disc repair. That's it, if your doctor recommends to do this operation, then if it's not covered by your insurance this is what you'll pay for the procedure followed by a standard per-day inpatient fee for however you're required to stay during recovery. It's up to the hospital how to split the amount among all the involved specialists labor, equipment, drugs and supplies required. As far as I've seen when traveling, the same (i.e. once it's clear what you want to be done, there's a price known beforehand) applies in most European and Asian countries, but it's hard to provide online examples as you must look for the local non-english (the english-speaking market, USA+UK+UK dominions, seems quite different from the rest of the world) services since English websites tend to be oriented for "medical tourism" services which is different from how the locals handle their healthcare, and there's a significant language barrier. How does pricing of elective surgeries work in your area?
    - dominotw 9y ago
      > That's it, if your doctor recommends to do this operation, then if it's not covered by your insurance this is what you'll pay for the procedure followed by a standard per-day inpatient fee for however you're required to stay during recovery. It's up to the hospital how to split the amount among all the involved specialists labor, equipment, drugs and supplies required. But this exactly the same in USA too. I got shoulder surgery in USA. Doctors office took my insurance information and called my insurance provider and told me how much my insurance covered and how much I am going to pay for it. I paid exactly that amount out of pocket post surgery.
      - PeterisP 9y ago
        As far as I understand, the insurance-negotiated system works more or less fine in USA, the major problems seem to be with uninsured rates; I have no first-hand experience from USA but the discussion about the health system claims that often they're either not able to obtain such information (especially if they'd be shopping to obtain a quote from multiple providers) or, alternatively, get hit with significant "surprise" extra bills from different additional providers. Of course, the issue may be exaggerated, but that's the impression I've got from media.
        bawana 9y ago
        no it doesnt work. the insurance companies restrict reimbursement even for those people who pay premiums. I have seen deductibles now in the $5000 to $10000 range. The costs and fees have been inflated beyond reality to facilitate their profit numbers for their EPS ratios.

PeterisP 9y ago

The same reasons would apply elsewhere, they're not USA-specific, so they don't explain why it's not possible to do the same thing that's successfully done elsewhere. Sure, there's some inherent variance always - the same thing happens in many industries and doesn't prevent them from offering fixed quotes; the service provider is the one best qualified to estimate the expected variance in their costs and offer appropriate pricing. Sure, there may be special requirements that justify charging extra for a particular case; that's not an obstacle from telling the customer about that beforehand. Well, not in ER, but most care is not ER.

dominotw 9y ago
> The same reasons would apply elsewhere, they're not USA-specific, so they don't explain why it's not possible to do the same thing that's successfully done elsewhere. I 've never seen a chart with prices for hernia in the lobby , anywhere that I've lived( I am not from USA). Where has it been successfully done?
- PeterisP 9y ago
  Well, it's not literally placed in the lobby (since the price chart is big and different locations/types/severities of e.g. hernia mean different types of operations, and the choice of which type of operation should be chosen is generally not made by you but by the consulting doctor) but it's conceptually the same in that the price list is publicly available and you know beforehand about what exactly you're going to be charged. E.g. a link to a random local (to me) hospital's pricelist (not in English, sorry) https://www.aslimnica.lv/lv/content/neirokirurgijas-operacijas https://www.aslimnica.lv/lv/content/neirokirurgijas-operacij... starts with two different procedures for herniated spinal disc repair. That's it, if your doctor recommends to do this operation, then if it's not covered by your insurance this is what you'll pay for the procedure followed by a standard per-day inpatient fee for however you're required to stay during recovery. It's up to the hospital how to split the amount among all the involved specialists labor, equipment, drugs and supplies required. As far as I've seen when traveling, the same (i.e. once it's clear what you want to be done, there's a price known beforehand) applies in most European and Asian countries, but it's hard to provide online examples as you must look for the local non-english (the english-speaking market, USA+UK+UK dominions, seems quite different from the rest of the world) services since English websites tend to be oriented for "medical tourism" services which is different from how the locals handle their healthcare, and there's a significant language barrier. How does pricing of elective surgeries work in your area?
  - dominotw 9y ago
    > That's it, if your doctor recommends to do this operation, then if it's not covered by your insurance this is what you'll pay for the procedure followed by a standard per-day inpatient fee for however you're required to stay during recovery. It's up to the hospital how to split the amount among all the involved specialists labor, equipment, drugs and supplies required. But this exactly the same in USA too. I got shoulder surgery in USA. Doctors office took my insurance information and called my insurance provider and told me how much my insurance covered and how much I am going to pay for it. I paid exactly that amount out of pocket post surgery.
    - PeterisP 9y ago
      As far as I understand, the insurance-negotiated system works more or less fine in USA, the major problems seem to be with uninsured rates; I have no first-hand experience from USA but the discussion about the health system claims that often they're either not able to obtain such information (especially if they'd be shopping to obtain a quote from multiple providers) or, alternatively, get hit with significant "surprise" extra bills from different additional providers. Of course, the issue may be exaggerated, but that's the impression I've got from media.
      - bawana 9y ago
        no it doesnt work. the insurance companies restrict reimbursement even for those people who pay premiums. I have seen deductibles now in the $5000 to $10000 range. The costs and fees have been inflated beyond reality to facilitate their profit numbers for their EPS ratios.