Jeanne Pinder
The newly released hospital price lists have been kicking up a lot of commentary on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The lists, as we’ve been discussing, are being made public in compliance with a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rule that hospitals have to post all their list prices online as of Jan. 1. […]
Jeanne Pinder
“Imagine if you purchased food like most Americans obtained healthcare. No, I really want you to try to envision it… ” Dr. Ryan Neuhofel writes over at fee.org. “Struggling? I am a family physician whose father worked in a grocery store, and I enjoy eating at Mexican restaurants immensely, so maybe I can help. An […]
Jeanne Pinder
A report came from a community member about a CT scan: 70490 Ct soft tissue neck w/o dye, charged $440.92, insurance paid nothing, he paid $440.92 at Queens Medical Imaging. He noted, “Performed at NYU imaging center on Austin Street. Seemed a bit too expensive. ” The bill had a different charge, so I asked […]
Jeanne Pinder
“Chronic diseases are on the rise in the United States, leaving healthcare payers with the challenge of covering care for patients with these expensive, long-term conditions,” Thomas Beaton writes over at Healthpayer Intelligence. “Healthcare spending reached a total of $3.2 trillion dollars in 2015, based upon estimates from CMS. Spending is expected to continue to […]
Jeanne Pinder
(Updated Feb. 9) Of course we support price transparency in health costs. We think all prices should be public all the time. So let’s examine the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rule that hospitals should post their charges online in “machine-readable format” as of Jan. 1. This policy is a tiny step […]
Jeanne Pinder
“Marcela Villa isn’t a big name in healthcare — but she played a crucial role in the lives of thousands of Medicaid patients in California,” Chad Terhune, lately of Kaiser Health News, writes over at The Los AngelesTimes. “Her official title: denial nurse. Each week, dozens of requests for treatment landed on her desk after […]
Jeanne Pinder
“Joaquin Lopez had emergency gallbladder surgery after rushing to an emergency room last year. He has been haggling with Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis over what he owes ever since,” Julie Appleby writes over at The New York Times. “The 37-year-old college professor was hit with a nearly $8,000 bill from the out-of-network hospital — […]
Jeanne Pinder
A community member writes: “Just wanted to give you some information for this area: Zip code 36532, which is the Alabama eastern shore of Mobile Bay. “Two weeks ago I had an MRI of both hip joints without contrast. The local monopoly healthcare system (Infirmary) charges $2,400. for that test with cash payers being given […]
Jeanne Pinder
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
A friend writes on Facebook, in response to a story a friend told about a hefty health care bill: “Generally, my tactic with the health care system is that no one at any level of the system is happy with it, and no one sees the whole picture. Get all the understandable shaky rage out […]
