4 ms·
Honest question: why cant the US Fed go after the hospitals, insurance companies and pharma companies for price fixing/collusion/anti competitive pricing? Seem
by hermitdev 7y ago
Honest question: why cant the US Fed go after the hospitals, insurance companies and pharma companies for price fixing/collusion/anti competitive pricing?
Seems to me that all of the warning signs are there, is it corruption in the regulatory agencies?
I don't buy that it's purely regulatory overhead. That you see this price gouging at supposed nonprofit hospitals as well, it can't be purely rampant unchecked capitalism when you have 15x markup from the pharmacy.
One of my pet peeves with US medical is how the billing is handled. Visit the ER? Get ready for an untold number of bills. One from the hospital, another for imaging, another from the pharmacy, yet more from specialists, radiology, etc. There's no one clear bill about what you owe. This is due to most of these technically being subcontractors. Yet, I dont know of any other industry where I have to pay subcontractors directly, rather than paying the contractor at once instead.
- zip1234 7y agoWell, I think requiring published pricing in a standard format would go a long ways. Right now, people have no idea how much anything will be. If there was published pricing, there could be a shopping app or something of the sort.
- coenhyde 7y agoRight. I'm for socialized healthcare. But if you're going to have a free market approach at least make the market forces applicable. Pricing for all services should be published in a standard format and then everyone should be charged the same price, regardless of who is paying.
- gnopgnip 7y agoThey are in some ways. Hospitals are required to publish their chargemasters, a list of all of the services they provide and their "retail" price, starting this year. Previously a few states like CA required it.