Jeanne Pinder
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Emergency room visits cost a lot. So we weren’t surprised when an anonymous person shared an emergency room bill on our site. What we were surprised by: It was a $545 charge. And the person who sent it was outraged that it was so high. By the standards of what we see every day, that […]
Jeanne Pinder
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“Last March, Tony Schmidt discovered something unsettling about the machine that helps him breathe at night,” Marshall Allen of ProPublica writes over at NPR’s Shots blog. “Without his knowledge, it was spying on him. From his bedside, the device was tracking when he was using it and sending the information not just to his doctor, […]
Jeanne Pinder
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A friend recently told me about an emergency room visit for a twisted ankle that nearly cost her $3,500 — and how she successfully argued a bill. We’re leaving out the name of the hospital and insurer, and also my friend’s name; the point here is not to name names but to give helpful advice […]
Jeanne Pinder
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The United States ranks first in spending and worst in obesity, life expectancy and infant mortality, compared to other high-income countries, according to a March 2018 article in JAMA Network by Irene Papanicolas, PhD; Liana R. Woskie, MSc1; and Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH1. Here are the findings: “In 2016, the US spent 17.8% of […]
Jeanne Pinder
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“Amid a flurry of national proposals to bring exorbitant U.S. drug prices in line with other countries’ charges, one Utah insurer has a different option for patients: Pay them to go to Mexico,” Erin Alberty writes over at The Salt Lake Tribune. PEHP, which covers 160,000 public employees and family members, is offering plane tickets […]
Jeanne Pinder
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A friend writes: “Tufts Medicare Preferred on numerous occasions failed to give me cost and alternative information related to Nucala (asthma) injections that I needed to make a reasonable decision. After three injections, I received a bill for my first injection copay of $576.74 indicating a total of $1730.22. I had had no previous indication […]
Jeanne Pinder
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Wonk alert! Anyone who knows us knows how much we love price lists. Here’s a new one: It’s a site that gives access to a full workers comp price list for North Carolina, called the “N.C. Industrial Commission Medical Fee Schedule.” You can download a spreadsheet that has the prices for workers comp settlements for […]
Jeanne Pinder
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This share came in recently from an anonymous community member — for an ultrasound of the head and neck, medical billing code 76536, with a charge of $146.91 at Oaks Radiology in Phoenixville, Pa., The comment: “Paoli Hospital quoted about $1000 without insurance, 40% discount if you pay cash up front, $221.77 with [Independence Blue […]
Jeanne Pinder
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“The whole point of health insurance is protection from financial ruin in case of catastrophic, costly health problems,” Margot Sanger-Katz writes over at The New York Times. “But a recent survey of people facing such problems shows that it often fails in that basic function. The survey, of some of the country’s most seriously ill […]
Jeanne Pinder
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“A pharma executive has defended his decision to raise the price of an antibiotic mixture to more than $2,000 a bottle, arguing there was a ‘moral requirement to sell the product at the highest price,’” David Crow writes over at The Financial Times. “Last month, Nostrum Laboratories, a small Missouri-based drugmaker, more than quadrupled the […]
