I just picked up a prescription for one of my twin daughters. The CVS pharmacy first thought the prescription was for her twin sister, who’s in their computer; the charge was $10.
When the person at the counter finally figured out it was a different daughter, who wasn’t in the computer, and changed the billing information, the price changed to $11.77.
I didn’t stay to inquire or argue, because I had already spent 45 minutes trying to solve the problem, and at some point $1.77 has to be considered an opportunity cost issue. But still.
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Delightful way of looking at our health-care marketplace: as a comic strip, and not as reality. Preventive medicine.
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Two new health care startup incubators: Startup Health and Blueprint Health. Also Rockhealth in California.
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A shoppable moment: let’s talk about knee replacements, hip replacements, and shoulder replacements. Let’s also talk about prices and efficacy.
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Still remarkable: we don’t talk about quality of medical care, because we’re focused intensely on price. But if you wanted to talk about quality, you could hit that link.
Jeanne Pinder is the founder and CEO of ClearHealthCosts. She worked at The New York Times for almost 25 years as a reporter, editor and human resources executive, then volunteered for a buyout and founded ClearHealthCosts.
With Pinder at the helm, ClearHealthCosts shared honors for the top network public service journalism project in a partnership with CBS News, as well as winning numerous other journalism prizes.
She was previously a fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism. ClearHealthCosts has won grants from the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York; the International Women’s Media Foundation; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with KQED public radio in San Francisco and KPCC in Los Angeles; the Lenfest Foundation in Philadelphia for a partnership with The Philadelphia Inquirer; and the New York State Health Foundation for a partnership with WNYC public radio/Gothamist in New York; and other honors.
She is one of Crain’s Notable Women in Tech. Niemanlab wrote of ClearHealthCosts that “The Internet hates secrets.”
Her TED talk about fixing health costs has surpassed 2 million views.