Summary: Measuring quality is a constant challenge in health care: quality of providers, quality of hospitals, quality of drugs, quality of treatments. Much of what’s out there is conflicting or written for professionals. A lot of quality information is actually delivered in the form of marketing materials, written to induce patients and providers to choose […]
Posted inCosts, Health plans, Health reform, Patients, Providers
Join us at PriceCheck, our health cost crowdsourcing project
Summary: KQED, Southern California Public Radio and ClearHealthCosts.com invite California residents to share the cost of medical procedures through Price Check, a groundbreaking crowdsourced database of health care prices, which was launched today. California is one of the largest health care markets in the world and Price Check, which will be a community-created database of […]
Posted inCosts, Health plans, Providers
Hospital quality ratings: Here’s another view, with hospital-by-hospital search
Summary: Quality ratings are hard to come by in the health-care marketplace, and the ones that exist tend to come to very different conclusions. But there’s a new set of quality ratings, imposed by the government, in an attempt to tie performance to pay by penalizing hospitals for complications and conditions acquired in the hospital. Jordan […]
Posted inCosts, Health reform, Patients
Health Insurers Pressing Down on Drug Prices: The New York Times
Summary: Increasingly, people are telling us that their medications are no longer covered by their insurance policy, or are covered but with a much higher out-of-pocket price. Andy Pollack wrote a remarkable piece in The New York Times this week pulling back the curtain on the price of prescriptions, and what you can do about […]
Posted inCosts
How much does an abortion cost? From $0 to $3,275
(Updated 2022) How much does an abortion cost? It can vary: from $0 to over $3,000 or more depending on, among other factors, how long you’ve been pregnant, how you’re paying and, increasingly, where you live. With the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade guaranteeing abortion for all Americans on June 24, […]
Posted inPatients, Providers
5 ways to net medical savings: All about us, in Parade magazine
Summary: We had a nice cameo in Parade magazine. Frank Lalli wrote: “As Anne Landman’s annual physical was about to end, her doctor asked, ‘Is there anything else you want to talk about?’ The Colorado author mentioned a lump in her throat. The doctor looked, said nothing was wrong—and then billed her an extra $100. […]
Posted inCosts, Health reform, Patients, Providers
Culture Change is Here: People are Price-Shopping for Health Care. Our CEO’s ‘Disruptive Women’ Post
Summary: Culture change is here. People are upset about rising health care prices and rising out-of-pocket expenses. In fact, they’re so upset that they’re acting like consumers, by shopping around for their health care, and by sharing information, and by complaining about their outrage. And that’s a good thing. Our CEO, Jeanne Pinder, was recently named […]
Posted inCosts, Health plans, Providers
The most expensive bills for employers: Cancer, kidney disease, leukemia, birth problems
Summary: Cancer and kidney disease are the most costly conditions employers deal with by asking their stop-loss insurers to cover them, and an increase in health problems present at birth, and also premature births and associated problems, have cost stop-loss insurers an increasing amount of money, according to a new study by Sun Life […]
Posted inCosts, Patients, Providers
How much does childbirth cost? $1,304? $51,125?
(Updated 2022) How much does childbirth cost? A vaginal delivery could cost as little as $1,304 or $1,594. Cesarean section (C-sections) estimates of what you’ll pay range from over $9,000 to more than $11,800 out of pocket — and the actual bills (the sticker price) can be much, much higher, well into the thousands and […]
Posted inCosts, Editor Picks, Health plans, Health reform, Patients, Providers
How much does childbirth cost? Or an MRI? Our hospital data
How much does childbirth cost? How much does an MRI cost? Gall bladder surgery, arthroscopy? Today we’re rolling out our database of cash or self-pay hospital prices. While we’ve been collecting pricing for modest “shoppable” procedures since our founding in early 2011, we are now launching a separate database of cash or self-pay prices for more expensive, […]
