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Well, that takes care of the "independently wealthy" segment of the population who can write a check for a few weeks in the ICU. Now, for the remaining 99%...
we need to remove government from health care and get back to a patient/doctor arraignment.
Of course liberal fools will continue to believe it can be reformed into a model of efficiency by their god, government.
Really? what about your polytheistic host of demons in Hades like the private cartels of
* Bar associations and medical litigation
* Medical school monopoly
* pharmaceutical monopoly that likes drugs for chronic diseases only
I agree our government sucks because they do nothing about private monopolies. Its so bad that even public medical systems are more efficient than we are.
I pay monthly for my healthcare through my employer. I recently went to the doctor for a check up. Because it was my first visit with this physician he did routine blood tests. The cost? $750.00. My portion was $350. I'm still in shock.
The waste is from the paper trail insurance companies require to pay your bill, I work in the case management unit in a large regional hospital. Insurance companies deny deny deny. They now send a lovely little letter, usually faxed that sez something like yes we will approve for you to have your procedure done but that doesn't mean we will PAY for it. I shipped out at least 10 pounds of paper work to insurance companies today to try and get them to pay up. It costs the hospital tons of money in wages of people to fight with these companies.
My own doc is a stand alone and he has 3 1/2 employees 2 and 1/2 of them work front office to fight with insurance companies. BTW the 1/2 is a part timer that comes in.
Anyone remember the book and the movie by John Grisham called the "Rainmaker"? It was all about how insurance companies will deny deny deny even if you pay your premiums...sad but true.
The waste is from the paper trail insurance companies require to pay your bill, I work in the case management unit in a large regional hospital. Insurance companies deny deny deny. They now send a lovely little letter, usually faxed that sez something like yes we will approve for you to have your procedure done but that doesn't mean we will PAY for it. I shipped out at least 10 pounds of paper work to insurance companies today to try and get them to pay up. It costs the hospital tons of money in wages of people to fight with these companies.
My own doc is a stand alone and he has 3 1/2 employees 2 and 1/2 of them work front office to fight with insurance companies. BTW the 1/2 is a part timer that comes in.
Anyone remember the book and the movie by John Grisham called the "Rainmaker"? It was all about how insurance companies will deny deny deny even if you pay your premiums...sad but true.
Back in the 70's I worked in the U of C Emergency room. The fee to register and see a doctor (even for a non emergency) was nominal. The cost for a routine visit in a doctors' office today is astronomical. God forbid you need a routine blood test. I cannot even begin to imagine what it costs to be in a hospital overnight.
I wish I could say I'm surprise but I know what you are stating is 100% true.
The waste is from the paper trail insurance companies require to pay your bill, I work in the case management unit in a large regional hospital. Insurance companies deny deny deny. They now send a lovely little letter, usually faxed that sez something like yes we will approve for you to have your procedure done but that doesn't mean we will PAY for it. I shipped out at least 10 pounds of paper work to insurance companies today to try and get them to pay up. It costs the hospital tons of money in wages of people to fight with these companies.
My own doc is a stand alone and he has 3 1/2 employees 2 and 1/2 of them work front office to fight with insurance companies. BTW the 1/2 is a part timer that comes in.
Anyone remember the book and the movie by John Grisham called the "Rainmaker"? It was all about how insurance companies will deny deny deny even if you pay your premiums...sad but true.
i believe that 100%.
insurance companies are in the business of making money, not spending it. i was looking at clark howard's site and saw this:
I read an article in The Los Angeles Times that gave some concrete examples of how much money doing it like this can save you.
In one case, a blood test that would have cost an insured patient $415 could be paid for in cash -- after negotiating -- for $95. In another case, one major insurer was charging a negotiated rate of $2,400 for a CAT scan at a Los Angeles-area hospital. But that was reduced down to $250 when the Times called to inquire about the cash price at the hospital.
for the record, there is no excuse why a 2,400 dollar procedure becomes a 250 dollar procedure.
if people can pay cash up front for non-emergency procedures they can save money long-term and help drive health care costs down.
i also saw an interesting experiment, similar to priceline, where people could bid for medical procedures (input what they are willing to pay) and see if they get a match.
So far I havent even seen unnecessary treatment mentioned. And of course the insurance companies add their margin plus profit. It's bad enough when the operation was necessary, but even worse when it wasn't.
"Examples of wasteful care include most repeat colonoscopies within 10 years of a first such test ....."
I'm having one shortly. The MD who did my first 4 years go wants me to have one done every 4-5 years.
When the "18-member panel of prominent experts, including doctors, business people, and public officials" spend 30 years or so in the field of gastroentorolgy perhaps I'll take their advice.
I can think of another icon I'd like to post, but sadly it's not here.
Random thought: What if health insurance companies were regulated private non-profits financed thru payroll but YOU choose which one? Money goes directly from the payroll to the non-profit.
At current regulation (in the ACA/obamacare actually, one of the few legitimately consumer-friendly things it did), medical costs have to be 85% of your premium or the company gives your money back. After operational costs, you're talking a whopping 5-10% savings for restructuring the entire industry. That's only about 2 years of cost inflation.
Non-profit insurers are theoretically the most efficient providers of healthcare (switzerland, for example, uses this system to great effect) but the effort required to get there from where we are now is huge whereas the benefits are relatively minor compared to direct cost control. Think of it this way: if you spend more than two years on the switch over, it would have been more efficient to spend that time directly tackling medical costs (by doing things like founding medical schools, fighting discriminatory drug pricing between Americans and other countries who free-ride off us, switching from fee for service medical care to capitation based care, etc.)
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Here I go, wasting away .....
