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How about conventional western medicine in this country being overpriced by itself which is what the article points out? Western Medicine here is WAY overpriced for what you get.
For years and years everyone has blamed the insurance companies when it is the doctors and hospitals and drug companies that people should be complaining about. After all it isn't like anyone who goes to a medical doctor with a chronic problem ever gets their robust health restored. No way! All they give you is expensive Rx to take the rest of your life to cover up symptoms! How is that helping you in the least? All it is doing is taking your money and will cause more health issues down the road! Yet people are so stupid or intimidated or something that they put medical doctors up on a pedestal that they don't deserve to be on. Good Naturopathic doctors who can give you your health back are the only ones who deserve that respect and admiration.
You are right about the government making things even MORE expensive when they get involved in an industry. Look at how lousy public school education is and how much it costs the taxpayers for starters. Even in the poorest of states, isn't it up to about $20k per student per year and some of them "graduate" and can't even read????? So do the numbers. 20 x 12 = $240,000 is spent per student. Then when people complain kids aren't learning enough, (just like with medical care when nobody blames the hospitals and the doctors) the insane reaction is to spend even MORE money and raise taxes even more to provide "better" education to pay the teachers even MORE. COME ON PEOPLE. WAKE UP. We throw good money after bad for so called "health" care just as we do for public schools. Home schooling proves that you can educate a kid for 1/10 the cost of what taxpayers fork over for public schools.
Let's get the government OUT of our lives and our pocket books. That is the only way to save ourselves and our country.
What the article left out and what works like a charm is if you are a victim of the "charge master", you can embarrass the provider by threatening to write a "Letter to the Editor" of your local paper which is what I have done. Then I include a reasonable payment; write "final payment for invoice XYZ". They cash the check and you never hear from them again.
You can look up "Reimbursement for CPT code 96543" or whatever it might be. Then you can see how little the providers accept from Medicare and how badly the provider is trying to rip you off with the charge master rates. Then if you need to ever write that letter to tell your community how your area hospital is trying to gouge you, you've got all the ammunition.
There is also an American Hospital Assn directory where at least you used to be able to look up any hospital in the country, find out the 25 most common services and see that there were sometimes 5 different prices for those exact same services and what the prices were.
The whole medical care thing is a scam and lets call it that. It is MEDICAL CARE. It has NOTHING to do with health. Let's also not get confused about what the "care" is. It is NOT the insurance. It is the treatment by the provider. The prices have only gotten worse as state governments have gotten involved in forcing mandates on the carriers insisting that they cover this and that (which only means they have to charge for this and that which isn't necessary for everyone).
There are numerous horror stories in that article. The whole business of medical bills and expenses is a shell game, soaking the most vulnerable. Insurance companies and Medicare have clout, the individual is out in the cold.
Absolutely correct. I also read the article and it is well worth the time. The exorbitant prices on the "charge master list" that so-called non-profit hospitals (not the government) are charging the most vulnerable patients is obscene and should be illegal. Definitely an article worth reading if one wants to gain an understanding of why medical costs are rising out of control.
I can't back it up because I can't remember where I saw it, but I believe the estimate was 1/3 of paid bills go toward covering those that don't pay.
Obviously you did not read the article in question as it covers the gross salaries of the various CEO's and other executives, the out site profit margins, even on the non-profits who spend on expansion, salaries, and equipment.
You are correct on what you point out is an issue however if you read the article you will learn about the real issue............GREED!
I can't back it up because I can't remember where I saw it, but I believe the estimate was 1/3 of paid bills go toward covering those that don't pay.
Irrelevant, in any event - pure propaganda. Read the article.
Charity care and unpaid bills account for about 5% of the hospitals' gross revenues - NOT PROFITS - gross revenues.
Quote:
Based on the formula hospitals use to calculate the cost of this charity care, that amounts to approximately 5% of their total revenue for 2010.
A note at the end of an Ernst & Young audit that is attached to Mercy’s IRS filing reported that the chain provided charity care worth 3.2% of its revenue in the previous year. However, the auditors state that the value of that care is based on the charges on all the bills, not the actual cost to Mercy of providing those services — in other words, the chargemaster value. Assuming that Mercy’s actual costs are a tenth of these chargemaster values — they’re probably less — all of this charity care actually cost Mercy about three-tenths of 1% of its revenue, or about $13 million out of $4.28 billion.
Hospital profits are obscene - in spite of their "charity care."
I'm keeping this issue of Time as a permanent reference along with my other medical information. There are numerous charts and graphs in the article which do not appear online. You can get a hard copy by writing Time.
Last edited by Ariadne22; 03-01-2013 at 04:55 PM..
I read the article. It's junk. No independent research - or analysis - or thinking - or anything. Just a bunch of anecdotal stuff mostly about insured/underinsured people strung together to get to a pre-determined conclusion.. Then again - what can you expect from a lawyer ?
Most people here in the US do have insurance in some way shape or form. And it would have been more to the point to deal with the issues from that point of view. Because there are issues IMO. Just not the ones that Steve Brill spends 90% of his article time on. Robyn
Obviously you did not read the article in question as it covers the gross salaries of the various CEO's and other executives...
What do you think the salary of a CEO of a major hospital system (like Mayo or Cleveland Clinic or MD Anderson or similar) should be? The CEO of Mayo Clinic makes about $2 million a year. That sounds ok to me. Robyn
I read the article. It's junk. No independent research - or analysis - or thinking - or anything. Just a bunch of anecdotal stuff mostly about insured/underinsured people strung together to get to a pre-determined conclusion.. Then again - what can you expect from a lawyer ?
Most people here in the US do have insurance in some way shape or form. And it would have been more to the point to deal with the issues from that point of view. Because there are issues IMO. Just not the ones that Steve Brill spends 90% of his article time on. Robyn
Well, it took Brill almost a year to put this story together. I believe him. His thesis is far more than "just a bunch of anecdotal stuff." He explores, in depth, the complexity of the medical delivery system in the US. Time devoted its entire issue to this subject last week. So they, too, are now in the business of prominently reporting, in over 24,000 words, skewed, misrepresented, and unsubtantiated information?
From my point of view, the insurance companies and doctors are also victims of the irrationally applied chargemaster, almost as much as the hapless, uninsured individual.
Specifically, what in the article is junk?
Does the chargemaster list not exist?
Are the irrationally applied markdowns off the chargemaster list also "predetermined conclusionary" junk?
Is the fact that Medicare pays possibly up to 90% less than the chargemaster rate "predetermined conclusionary" junk?
Is the fact that each insurance company contracts and pays differently for the same service, marking down off the chargemaster list, "predetermined conclusionary" junk?
Is the fact that often the uninsured individual is stuck with the chargemaster rate, "predetermined conclusionary" junk?
Is the hospitals' hoot and holler about the cost of charity care not "predetermined conclusionary" junk, when this care amounts to, at most, only 5% of their gross revenues?
Are the anecdotal stories in this article embellished lies - or just the tip of the iceberg? Brill has since said in the most recent issue of Time, based on emails he's received recounting more horror stories, he's apparently only scratched the surface of this problem.
Brill's point is that medical care is ridiculously overpriced - and billed, double-billed, and triple-billed - in no logical way. He makes that point very clearly and credibly.
As someone has commented earlier - what good is the best medical care in the world if you can't afford it?
Last edited by Ariadne22; 03-02-2013 at 06:18 PM..
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