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> And the purpose of shopping around is comparing between hospitals. List prices should be a good relative predictor for comparing cost. When is the last time
by txcwpalpha 9y ago
> And the purpose of shopping around is comparing between hospitals. List prices should be a good relative predictor for comparing cost.
When is the last time you dealt with any healthcare bills? This is almost universally untrue. Hospital A's list price for an MRI might be $1000, but your insurance has a deal with them where you only pay $100 out of pocket. Meanwhile Hospital B's list price for the same MRI is $500, but your insurance doesn't have a deal with them, so your OOP cost is $500. This is very common, and in many cases is impossible to know if it will happen until after you have had the procedure and are billed.
- sigmar 9y agoI mean, yea, you check with your insurer first? How could the hospital possibly have information about how much each insurer would cover considering there are literally hundreds? This seems like a "perfect is the enemy of good" situation
- txcwpalpha 9y ago> I mean, yea, you check with your insurer first? If you're checking with your insurer to find the price, then that makes the hospital's listed prices meaningless, which is the entire point of this comment chain.
- sigmar 9y agoThe insurer doesn't know what each hospital charges. Posting costs online is just to make it more convenient to find the information. In the perfect world, everyone would sit down with the hospital, look at the likely range of costs of a procedure, call the HMO/PPO to check how each outcome would be covered, and then repeat that process at several locations. But that is arduous and people don't have the time or patience.
- txcwpalpha 9y ago>The insurer doesn't know what each hospital charges. Yes they do. Providers are already required to make their list prices publicly available, and insurance companies have it (they are already available to the general public as well, but they're probably going to be hard to find/understand for a layperson). Many insurance companies already have cost lookup tools specifically for this purpose. Posting the hospital's list price online like the article is talking about is purely for the consumption of the patient. It is not of use to the insurer. >In the perfect world In a perfect world, I'd contest that you wouldn't have to worry about healthcare costs at all, but I digress. >everyone would sit down with the hospital, look at the likely range of costs of a procedure, call the HMO/PPO to check how each outcome would be covered Except you already can do this even without looking at the list prices from a hospital. Your insurance can already tell you exactly how much you will be charged by any provider. They do not need these online 'list prices' to do so.
- chimeracoder 9y ago> The insurer doesn't know what each hospital charges. Posting costs online is just to make it more convenient to find the information. Every hospital charges more than the maximum reimbursable amount for the insurer. If they don't, that's because they've made a mistake - their goal is literally to set a bill that's high enough that it will generate a reimbursement for the maximum amount each time.
- jwineinger 9y agoIsn't it standard practice to find out which facilities/providers are in your network so you can judge this? I always check before we go somewhere new
- bluGill 9y agoYes, but that is the only thing I check. If I have a choice between two in-network providers I don't even ask about price.
- matz1 9y agoSo at least you know what the maximum amount you have to pay, regardless what amount your insurance will pay.