“In a recent column I reported on an effort in Ohio to bring price transparency to medical services,” Trudy Lieberman writes for the Rural Health News Service, in a syndicated piece used by The Journal Advocate in Sterling, Colo., and elsewhere. Lieberman is a longtime health journalist, chair of the Association of Health Care Journalists New […]
Health care providers keeping secrets: Lee Zurik and Jed Lipinski, Cracking the Code
Dear hospitals: Please don’t keep secrets from us! Here’s Lee Zurik of WVUE Fox 8 Live in a new installment of our Cracking the Code partnership in New Orleans. The topic: What happens when people don’t know prices in advance, and wind up with burdensome — or ruinous — bills. Here’s Jed Lipinski of NOLA.com […]
For some Louisiana health insurers, explanations of benefits are anything but: NOLA.com
“When people go to the supermarket, they expect prices to be clearly posted in the store and then listed in an itemized receipt at checkout. If shoppers notice they’ve been overcharged for a carton of milk, they assume the cashier will issue them a refund on the spot.” our partner Jed Lipinski writes over at […]
A.C.A. drove down personal bankruptcy: Consumer Reports
Summary: “As legislators and the executive branch renew their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act this week, they might want to keep in mind a little-known financial consequence of the ACA: Since its adoption, far fewer Americans have taken the extreme step of filing for personal bankruptcy,” Allen St. John writes over […]
Who’s spending the most on health care lobbying: Axios
Summary: Drug companies dug deep into their lobbying piggy banks in President Trump’s first quarter, but they weren’t the only health care companies or trade groups that increased their budgets in Washington. Here’s a list of the top 25 spenders and how much they budgeted for health care lobbying, based on an Axios review of […]
The Doctor Weighs In: Our latest podcast appearance
Summary: Pat Salber at “The Doctor Weighs In” asked me to be on her podcast. Of course I said yes! Here’s the link, and here’s an iFrame version.
Find out what stuff costs: 10 easy questions
How much will that medical procedure cost? How much of that cost will I have to pay? It’s hard for patients to figure all this out. Medical prices might be lower if they were more transparent. If we all ask about and compare the costs of care, we can hope to make that behavior the […]
Cancer hotline: Ask about treatments, diagnosis and costs
Summary: An American Cancer Society person told me the other day about this hotline number for information on cancer diagnosis, treatment and costs: 800-227-2345. She said the information comes from experts who can help not only with parsing information on a recent diagnosis, but also with finding treatment, costs and prevention. I have not used […]
An off-the-charts launch: Our New Orleans partnership
Summary: Our New Orleans partnership has brought a response that is off the charts in every way. We are a little more than two weeks from our launch, and we are hearing from 10-60 people a day with data and questions on health care pricing. We’re also the topic of conversation in the community. In […]
Why is New York killing health insurance for my employees? | The New York Post
Summary: Seemingly obscure regulatory battles can make a huge difference. Here’s one case, about stop-loss insurance regulations and self-insured employers, from an opinion piece in The New York Post. “Before switching to self-insurance two years ago, Pharos faced double-digit premium hikes for conventional insurance coverage every year,” writes Kevin Pickhardt, CEO of Rochester-based Pharos Systems […]