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This has enormous impact by bringing transparency to medical procedure pricing. One could quite literally save $10-50K by opting to do a procedure just a few mi
by dshankar 13y ago
This has enormous impact by bringing transparency to medical procedure pricing. One could quite literally save $10-50K by opting to do a procedure just a few miles away.
Nice work. Where did you get the data for this? Is it publicly available?
- ajiang 13y agoThis looks like DRG data by hospital released a few months ago by CMS, so what the hospitals bill for to Medicare, although the actual payments are set by CMS. Still, charge master data is the starting point for people not on Medicare/Medicaid
- neilsharma 13y agoThanks. Yeah, a lot of people travel abroad to save money, but its possible to find comparable prices nearby too. Patients aren't trained to shop around with procedures though. The Obama Administration has tried to make pricing more transparent--this particular data set is publicly available. Here it is: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Inpatient.html https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta...
- toomuchtodo 13y agoAs someone with a disabled mother on medicaid (whom I spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on for prescriptions and care), thank you.
- refurb 13y agoCan I ask why you're spending thousands of dollars on Rx and care? From what I've gathered Medicaid patients have co-pays of $3-$5 on drugs and very small office visit co-pays. I'm not questioning your story, just genuinely curious what the extra costs are.
- ceejayoz 13y agoIIRC, Medicaid has some odd situations where they'll pay for nursing homes but not 10x cheaper (and better outcome, in many cases) home-health aides.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoNot a problem My mother is covered by Indiana's medicaid program, as she's at the poverty level but not old enough yet to qualify for Medicare. Her prescription buydown/deductible every month is $550, which I pay for. If you don't mind, I don't want to list specific medications, as it might make it easier to determine her identity. She takes medication for bone mineralization, hormone replacement due to a heart condition, a medication to reduce her blood pressure, as well as a Schedule I pain killer 3-4 times a day for pain management due to lower body nerve damage. She'll very likely have some nerves in her lower back severed in the next 6-12 months to relieve the pain. So, her prescriptions alone cost around $5K-$6K/year. This is before her GP or specialist copays (very few providers will take Medicaid patients, so its hard to find and keep them), or a hospital visit or two. Her recent open MRI was completely out of pocket (luckily only $600 at a low-income clinic).
- refurb 13y agoThanks for sharing. I wasn't aware of Medicaid patients who had to pay those types of costs. I guess my question is, what if a Medicaid patient in IN was truly destitute? There must be some mechanism for patients who can't afford those types of costs.