3 ms·

In case anyone was curious, there isn't a centralized list of everything yet. All the chargemasters are posted on the individual hospital websites.

by shishy 8y ago

wjossey 8y ago
I have a feeling some of these non-profits that are mentioned will take a crack at creating a centralized index. But, it sounds like it'll be a borderline impossibility to make it accurate and useful. To me, the argument that people can "shop around" for healthcare is just peculiar. For elective / non emergency scenarios, I get it. Dentists, for example, are more likely to face pricing pressure, given that dental work tends to be non-emergency. However emergency care, which is where insurance really matters, is by definition an emergency. If you cut off a finger, you don't call ten hospitals to find out who will stitch it on the cheapest. You head to the nearest hospital so you don't lose your finger! I'm generally quite sympathetic to Hayekian economics, but the model doesn't strike me as universal (which doesn't make it flawed, just not some grand unified theory). Behavioral economics change during time sensitive & life threatening situations in a way that "throw the rulebook out the window", so to speak.
- mises 8y ago
  Fair point. But by the same token, the closer to an emergency good a procedure is, the less likely people are to buy it. To illustrate: I know someone who took off the top of her finger in a car door. She picked it up and drove to the nearest hospital. Database or no, the "cheapest ER near her" wouldn't have been an option. Admittedly, this is extremely, but it still communicates the point. Let's also not forget that cheaper often is correlated with a worse standard of care. The nearest ER happened to be a hospital with an expert hand surgeon on staff, and the hand of the lady in question looks nearly the same. The "cheapest ER near her" would likely have stitched up a stump. Functional, but inferior. Furthermore, the standard of care becomes much more important with anything life-threatening.
- dantheman 8y ago
  Most healthcare costs are not emergency care; its probably somewhere from 2% - 10% of healthcare costs: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/28/nick-gillespie/does-emergency-care-account-just-2-percent-all-hea/ https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct...

In case anyone was curious, there isn't a centralized list of everything yet. All the chargemasters are posted on the individual hospital websites.

by shishy 8y ago

In case anyone was curious, there isn't a centralized list of everything yet. All the chargemasters are posted on the individual hospital websites.

wjossey 8y ago

I have a feeling some of these non-profits that are mentioned will take a crack at creating a centralized index. But, it sounds like it'll be a borderline impossibility to make it accurate and useful. To me, the argument that people can "shop around" for healthcare is just peculiar. For elective / non emergency scenarios, I get it. Dentists, for example, are more likely to face pricing pressure, given that dental work tends to be non-emergency. However emergency care, which is where insurance really matters, is by definition an emergency. If you cut off a finger, you don't call ten hospitals to find out who will stitch it on the cheapest. You head to the nearest hospital so you don't lose your finger! I'm generally quite sympathetic to Hayekian economics, but the model doesn't strike me as universal (which doesn't make it flawed, just not some grand unified theory). Behavioral economics change during time sensitive & life threatening situations in a way that "throw the rulebook out the window", so to speak.

mises 8y ago
Fair point. But by the same token, the closer to an emergency good a procedure is, the less likely people are to buy it. To illustrate: I know someone who took off the top of her finger in a car door. She picked it up and drove to the nearest hospital. Database or no, the "cheapest ER near her" wouldn't have been an option. Admittedly, this is extremely, but it still communicates the point. Let's also not forget that cheaper often is correlated with a worse standard of care. The nearest ER happened to be a hospital with an expert hand surgeon on staff, and the hand of the lady in question looks nearly the same. The "cheapest ER near her" would likely have stitched up a stump. Functional, but inferior. Furthermore, the standard of care becomes much more important with anything life-threatening.
dantheman 8y ago
Most healthcare costs are not emergency care; its probably somewhere from 2% - 10% of healthcare costs: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/28/nick-gillespie/does-emergency-care-account-just-2-percent-all-hea/ https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct...