5 ms·

Why are hospitals allowed to withhold the price of service until after treatment? No other business that I know of is allowed to get away with this kind of beh

Why are hospitals allowed to withhold the price of service until after treatment? No other business that I know of is allowed to get away with this kind of behavior. You don't sign a contract to buy a car, then find out the price later. Isn't there some precandent in law somewhere saying that one parting cant change an agreement after the fact or they would be acting in bad faith? Are hospitals acting in bad faith?

lr4444lr 7y ago
Part of the problem is that for many procedures, there are subprocedures or emergency measures or just unexpected routes that doctors have to take in order to complete the objective you did consent to which tack on charges. But TBH, I'm not convinced why they shouldn't just be forced to eat these costs as a matter of labor contingency like every other business, and raise the overall procedure cost to an amount that would cover the odds of this happening and tell us up front.
- frogperson 7y ago
  I agree. If i contract to have a house built, I understand there can be over runs, but those are treated as a special case. I still know, with fairly good certainty, what the final cost will be up front.
robomartin 7y ago
The Trump administration has a bill in the works that requires hospitals (and I believe all medical professionals) to publish the cost of their sevices. Of course, it is being fought because Trump is behind it. Politics is the relinquishing of critical thinking in favor of the interests of political parties. It is a disgusting, corrupt ecosystem populated by equally disgusting and corrupt people. The only way someone like Trump comes into the scene is because things have become so putrid in politics that people decide their only option is to send someone into the White House who is perfectly comfortable throwing feces around.
- war1025 7y ago
  > The only way someone like Trump comes into the scene is because things have become so putrid in politics that people decide their only option is to send someone into the White House who is perfectly comfortable throwing feces around. That's almost poetic. And quite accurate in my particular case.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  He has had three years so far but besides tough talk I haven’t seen much progress as far as health policy goes.
  - robomartin 7y ago
    You are using the wrong time scale. Here’s a depressing exercise: Go back as far as you can find video of promises made by Presidential, Senate and House candidates of any political party. Write down the problems they list and solutions they promise. Here we are, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years later with the same problems, the same promises and the same incompetence and lack of action. Election after election, campaign after campaign, we are promised the world and, in exchange for our votes, receive absolutely nothing. Through that time every single politician becomes a multi-millionaire at the expense of the people they are supposed to represent and help. Don’t blame a guy who chose to step into a pit of vipers covered in fecal matter for what, in reality, is a monumental failure of our political system and the elites who run it. The fact that we don’t have a sensible healthcare system is not Trump’s doing. It is the result of 50 or more years of people voting for charlatans and scam artists. It’s embarrassing, it’s a disgrace. Yes, Trump is uniquely capable of inducing projectile vomiting. However, the real obscenity is what the political class has done to this country during the last several decades. Imagine being the guy actually trying to fix that mess. Do you really think decades of corruption, partisanship and incompetence can be fixed in a couple of years? And, do you think fixing this putrid mess is going to be, say, dignified and clean in any way? No, the way you clean a putrid mess is you open the doors and windows and you get to work. It’s going to be horrible, disgusting, smelly and vomit-inducing. Eventually, if you persevere, things improve and you can go from throwing feces at each other to pretending we are civilized and return to decorum. I certainly don’t agree with all of his views and some of his social manner makes me want to vomit, but I am glad we have someone at the helm who is letting all the stench out for all to see and continues to fight them hard despite having been covered in shit for three years. Few people could endure such a thing. This is a remarkable time to witness. The real obscenity is what our politicians have done to us for decades. Anything Trump may have said or done pales by comparison. I wish people could stop, think and understand this fact.

lr4444lr 7y ago

Part of the problem is that for many procedures, there are subprocedures or emergency measures or just unexpected routes that doctors have to take in order to complete the objective you did consent to which tack on charges. But TBH, I'm not convinced why they shouldn't just be forced to eat these costs as a matter of labor contingency like every other business, and raise the overall procedure cost to an amount that would cover the odds of this happening and tell us up front.

frogperson 7y ago
I agree. If i contract to have a house built, I understand there can be over runs, but those are treated as a special case. I still know, with fairly good certainty, what the final cost will be up front.

robomartin 7y ago

The Trump administration has a bill in the works that requires hospitals (and I believe all medical professionals) to publish the cost of their sevices. Of course, it is being fought because Trump is behind it. Politics is the relinquishing of critical thinking in favor of the interests of political parties. It is a disgusting, corrupt ecosystem populated by equally disgusting and corrupt people. The only way someone like Trump comes into the scene is because things have become so putrid in politics that people decide their only option is to send someone into the White House who is perfectly comfortable throwing feces around.

war1025 7y ago
> The only way someone like Trump comes into the scene is because things have become so putrid in politics that people decide their only option is to send someone into the White House who is perfectly comfortable throwing feces around. That's almost poetic. And quite accurate in my particular case.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
He has had three years so far but besides tough talk I haven’t seen much progress as far as health policy goes.
- robomartin 7y ago
  You are using the wrong time scale. Here’s a depressing exercise: Go back as far as you can find video of promises made by Presidential, Senate and House candidates of any political party. Write down the problems they list and solutions they promise. Here we are, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years later with the same problems, the same promises and the same incompetence and lack of action. Election after election, campaign after campaign, we are promised the world and, in exchange for our votes, receive absolutely nothing. Through that time every single politician becomes a multi-millionaire at the expense of the people they are supposed to represent and help. Don’t blame a guy who chose to step into a pit of vipers covered in fecal matter for what, in reality, is a monumental failure of our political system and the elites who run it. The fact that we don’t have a sensible healthcare system is not Trump’s doing. It is the result of 50 or more years of people voting for charlatans and scam artists. It’s embarrassing, it’s a disgrace. Yes, Trump is uniquely capable of inducing projectile vomiting. However, the real obscenity is what the political class has done to this country during the last several decades. Imagine being the guy actually trying to fix that mess. Do you really think decades of corruption, partisanship and incompetence can be fixed in a couple of years? And, do you think fixing this putrid mess is going to be, say, dignified and clean in any way? No, the way you clean a putrid mess is you open the doors and windows and you get to work. It’s going to be horrible, disgusting, smelly and vomit-inducing. Eventually, if you persevere, things improve and you can go from throwing feces at each other to pretending we are civilized and return to decorum. I certainly don’t agree with all of his views and some of his social manner makes me want to vomit, but I am glad we have someone at the helm who is letting all the stench out for all to see and continues to fight them hard despite having been covered in shit for three years. Few people could endure such a thing. This is a remarkable time to witness. The real obscenity is what our politicians have done to us for decades. Anything Trump may have said or done pales by comparison. I wish people could stop, think and understand this fact.