5 ms·

There are some facilities which already post basically accurate prices online: https://surgerycenterok.com/ https://surgerycenterok.com/ is a great example. If

by rdl 9y ago

There are some facilities which already post basically accurate prices online: https://surgerycenterok.com/ https://surgerycenterok.com/ is a great example. If I needed some kind of elective or non-emergency procedure, they would be high on my list (along with medical tourism to foreign countries where procedures are also clearly priced, and even cheaper) I've recently been having pretty good luck going to medical providers and offering cash (I have Kaiser insurance now, which I basically treat as emergency/catastrophic only, since they never cover any providers I'd want to see, so I basically end up paying cash.). I was able to get a dermatologist to go from $600+ to $95 because cash.

madengr 9y ago
Only issue I see with that, is that your payments won’t count towards reducing your deductible. $600 vs. $90 is a no brainer though. I ended up dropping dental insurance and just pay cash, even for a family of 4, it is cheaper, assuming the kids brush their teeth.
vidarh 9y ago
> (along with medical tourism to foreign countries where procedures are also clearly priced, and even cheaper) The thing that is really bizarre to me is that I've more than once seen people quite prices for non-emergency procedures in the US that are more expensive than taking a business class flight to London, checking into a high end hotel and getting treated at a top private hospital targeting mostly rich people... Of course it's less convenient than being treated near your home, but the difference can be significant.
- rsynnott 9y ago
  Do such hospitals actually accept non-resident patients from outside the EU for elective stuff? I'm not sure about the UK setup, but in Ireland, private hospitals are able to save costs on the basis that if something goes badly wrong, they can just shunt the patient over to the larger and generally better equipped public hospital, which is often literally next door, at which point the patient become's the state system's problem. For instance, many of them don't have an ICU. This works okay if the patient is resident or is an EU citizen, and so is entitled to be treated by the public system (though it's arguably an effective subsidy of the private system by the public system), but I wouldn't have thought it'd be feasible for non-resident foreign citizens.
  - vidarh 9y ago
    Yes, most would. The NHS also treats anyone who needs it if an emergency need arises with the caveat that they will bill you if you don't have proper coverage (be it by virtue of residency or private cover). Many, like e.g. HCA International explicitly advertise to an international client base, and tout their large numbers of ICU beds as one of their features, so would rarely expect to need to transfer patients. One thing that certainly does bring costs down in the UK is that the system is geared heavily towards maximizing utilization of resources by e.g. allowing the NHS trusts to take on private work, and allowing NHS doctors to take on work at private clinics, and allowing private clinics to rent NHS resources, so you may very well find that your treatment by a private healthcare company involves being operated in an NHS hospital by an NHS consultant on their spare time. But while they certainly then benefit from economies of scale, all of this happens on commercial terms - e.g. NHS trusts use profits from renting out capacity to offset parts of their running costs. The biggest private providers do have their own operating theatres and ICU's, but they too tend to have NHS staff working part time or consulting and may still rent NHS resources where it makes sense.
  - DanBC 9y ago
    England has a mix of private hospitals and NHS hospitals. Some private surgeons work from NHS hospitals - in that case you'd have a private surgeon, a private anaesthetist, and probably NHS nurses / OD techs, and then a private room. The cost to visitors of NHS treatment is 1.5x the NHS rate. Some stuff is exempt. Here's the official guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overs... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations/summary-of-changes-made-to-the-way-the-nhs-charges-overseas-visitors-for-nhs-hospital-care https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overs...
    - rsynnott 9y ago
      Huh, interesting. I wonder if that's allowed here, too; the Irish system is a dual public-private system fairly similar to the UK one. I just assumed it wouldn't be allowed because it seems like it'd be an undue burden on the public system.

by rdl 9y ago

madengr 9y ago

Only issue I see with that, is that your payments won’t count towards reducing your deductible. $600 vs. $90 is a no brainer though. I ended up dropping dental insurance and just pay cash, even for a family of 4, it is cheaper, assuming the kids brush their teeth.

vidarh 9y ago

> (along with medical tourism to foreign countries where procedures are also clearly priced, and even cheaper) The thing that is really bizarre to me is that I've more than once seen people quite prices for non-emergency procedures in the US that are more expensive than taking a business class flight to London, checking into a high end hotel and getting treated at a top private hospital targeting mostly rich people... Of course it's less convenient than being treated near your home, but the difference can be significant.

rsynnott 9y ago
Do such hospitals actually accept non-resident patients from outside the EU for elective stuff? I'm not sure about the UK setup, but in Ireland, private hospitals are able to save costs on the basis that if something goes badly wrong, they can just shunt the patient over to the larger and generally better equipped public hospital, which is often literally next door, at which point the patient become's the state system's problem. For instance, many of them don't have an ICU. This works okay if the patient is resident or is an EU citizen, and so is entitled to be treated by the public system (though it's arguably an effective subsidy of the private system by the public system), but I wouldn't have thought it'd be feasible for non-resident foreign citizens.
- vidarh 9y ago
  Yes, most would. The NHS also treats anyone who needs it if an emergency need arises with the caveat that they will bill you if you don't have proper coverage (be it by virtue of residency or private cover). Many, like e.g. HCA International explicitly advertise to an international client base, and tout their large numbers of ICU beds as one of their features, so would rarely expect to need to transfer patients. One thing that certainly does bring costs down in the UK is that the system is geared heavily towards maximizing utilization of resources by e.g. allowing the NHS trusts to take on private work, and allowing NHS doctors to take on work at private clinics, and allowing private clinics to rent NHS resources, so you may very well find that your treatment by a private healthcare company involves being operated in an NHS hospital by an NHS consultant on their spare time. But while they certainly then benefit from economies of scale, all of this happens on commercial terms - e.g. NHS trusts use profits from renting out capacity to offset parts of their running costs. The biggest private providers do have their own operating theatres and ICU's, but they too tend to have NHS staff working part time or consulting and may still rent NHS resources where it makes sense.
- DanBC 9y ago
  England has a mix of private hospitals and NHS hospitals. Some private surgeons work from NHS hospitals - in that case you'd have a private surgeon, a private anaesthetist, and probably NHS nurses / OD techs, and then a private room. The cost to visitors of NHS treatment is 1.5x the NHS rate. Some stuff is exempt. Here's the official guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overs... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations/summary-of-changes-made-to-the-way-the-nhs-charges-overseas-visitors-for-nhs-hospital-care https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overs...
  - rsynnott 9y ago
    Huh, interesting. I wonder if that's allowed here, too; the Irish system is a dual public-private system fairly similar to the UK one. I just assumed it wouldn't be allowed because it seems like it'd be an undue burden on the public system.