Tag: California

People are shopping for health care. This is what it sounds like.

Filed Under: Costs, Editor Picks, Health plans

People are shopping for health care. This is what it sounds like.

Culture change is here. People are upset about their health costs, and they’re acting like consumers in the marketplace. They’re looking for value, and for providers who will cure their ills and treat them like thinking beings. We know this because they’re telling us on our PriceCheck project, crowdsourcing health-care prices with our partners KQED public radio […]

California Kaiser KPCC KQED PriceCheck

A condom-finder app and a helpful eCard: oops, you’ve been exposed

Filed Under: Costs, Patients

Doctors in California have come up with a condom-finding smartphone app that they hope will help curb Sacramento’s rising STD rates. Sacramento’s Cares Community Health recently released a Condom Finder app that directs users to free condom dispensers in the area. Located in local businesses, the dispensers are stocked and maintained by the organization. CBS Sacramento […]

California chlamydia condom-finder app condoms gonorrhea

California, and L.A., offer options to help those in need of health care

Filed Under: Costs, Patients, Providers

You learn a lot about state-by-state health care when collecting prices as we do. Socioeconomics, demographics, geography – all of these things can make a huge difference in cash-pay prices for health care procedures and commodities. One thing we learned while collecting prices in the greater Los Angeles area is that there are a surprising […]

California Family PACT Healthy Way LA Los Angeles

How much does an MRI cost?

Filed Under: Costs

We like price lists. So it’s not surprising that we found ourselves perusing a California hospital’s list of charges one afternoon. This is for Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, and we focused on one of the prices that we know a lot about: the MRI of the lumbar spine, HCPCS code 72148, without contrast or […]

California chargemaster MRI prices

California prices vary widely, study says, not surprisingly

Filed Under: Costs, Patients, Providers

Sticker prices for surgical procedures vary widely, with charges for a Caesarean section ranging from $12,972 to $41,833, according to a new study by the the California Public Interest Research Group, according to an article in The Sacramento Bee. “A group of public-interest researchers took on the veiled, confounding world of hospital pricing Thursday in […]

California CalPIRG consumers hospitals prices

Editor's Picks

PriceCheck: We're creating health cost guides, and Covid-19 guides, with our partners and communities across the nation
Our CEO's TED talk is live at TED.com
How much does a colonoscopy cost? From $600 to more than $5,400 and up
How much will that cost/did that cost? Part 1 of a series on billing
Women, men, health care costs: Speaking different languages
Is it cheaper to pay cash than to use your insurance? Maybe.
People are shopping for health care. This is what it sounds like.
How much does childbirth cost? Or an MRI? Our hospital data
How do people use our information? A few examples
How much does a mammogram cost? The takeaway on billing, from our WNYC partnership