While Democrats dither over the virtues of ‘Medicare for All’, the Trump administration is about to embark on an all-out offensive to lower health-care costs in the US.
According to WSJ, Trump is preparing an executive order that would force health-care providers – hospitals, internists, specialists etc. – to disclose the discounted and negotiated rates for various procedures that they negotiate with insurance companies. The order would force more transparency among health-care pricing, an industry that is accustomed to transacting in private.
The idea is that more price transparency would improve consumer choice and stoke more competition, which could exert downward pressure on prices. However, previous attempts to introduce more transparency to the industry have been vehemently resisted by special interests. President Trump is also working on an initiative to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
For example, patients would be able to see the price of a routine scan – like a CAT scan – in advance. If one clinic wants to charge $5,000 for the procedure, the patient can check with another clinic and shop around for the best price. The stunning lack of transparency in this market has allowed for immense cost disparities to persist between various providers – prices that are often completely divorced from the actual cost of the procedure.
The White House is planning a meeting on Friday to iron out the last details of the order.
A bipartisan plan introduced in the Senate is seeking to accomplish something similar by mandating that providers disclose the price of a given procedure within 48 hours of the request.
As WSJ revealed in a blockbuster report published last summer, the opacity surrounding medical-services pricing has sometimes led hospitals to wildly inflate the costs of some of the most common procedures. After receiving complaints about the price of a $50,000 knee surgery from Medicare, the hospital set out to determine how much the surgery actually cost.
The answer? Just $10,550, including the surgeons and the anesthesiologist.
The Trump administration is also weighing whether to use the DoJ’s anti-trust authority to break up regional hospital monopolies and encourage more competition.
For years now, health-care costs have dramatically outpaced consumer-price inflation. One researcher who monitored health-care costs over a five-year period from the beginning of 2012 to the end of 2016 found average costs nationally rose by 16%, roughly three times the rate of inflation.
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Healthcare/insurance companies are the only ones in business where the customer has no pricing discovery and never knows how much they pay for something. I want a muffin business where you order and i debit your card and never tell you my price. I would retire in a day….
One of the very few that posts prices, the Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
https://surgerycenterok.com/pricing/
In addition, how about we do away with bummercare, like you promised………………
If a law doesn’t force health care providers to honor the prices insurance companies pay, what good is it to have transparency?
My brother is 58. He has been “disabled” for going on 20 years. Free health care and a disability check every month for life. He has COPD and has had a stent in his head for years. He has had both shoulders replaced(?), both knees replaced and both hips replaced for
FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????????????????????????
So you disagree with your brother’s doctor? Perhaps there are other issues at play here, judging by all the emojis.
“If a law doesn’t force health care providers to honor the prices insurance companies pay, what good is it to have transparency?”
My first thought as well. What fucking good will it do you to be able to see how cheap an insurance company gets a service? Good luck trying to get the same rate for yourself.
My wife wanted to get an MRI. She called a clinic (I don’t know what you call these types of providers) and the non insurance price was $2,000.
I had an MRI done years ago. Surgeon told me I needed surgery (ruptured disc (C4-C5). I went to a chiropractor instead. Insurance wouldn’t cover the chiropractor. No surgery needed. The insurance company sent me a $600 bill for the MRI. I wrote a letter telling the insurance company I saved them $30,000 and if I see this MRI bill again, I will sue their Dr. for malpractice/fraud. That was 13 years ago and I never saw the bill again. Isn’t on my credit report either.
Not bad for a Donkey!Good work!
I would like to see pharm re-inmportation for drugs that have a actual value,the US has been picking up the tab for pharm industries for years,time to end that also!This is a good start,lets see insurance allowed to cross borders like auto was,my rates lower now then 20 years ago with same driving record,a good form of deflation!
Isn’t this basically what K.D from market ticker has been yelling about forever now. It is crazy, we have been having alot of medical bills the past few years and its maddening. We sometimes get bills a year later for something we thought was paid for. The billing codes sometimes get crazy and the basically double dip when you are hospitilized sometimes. Wife had a heart monitor for 24hrs, cost 3k?! Just to what, spend 5 minutes hooking it up and then reading the results? The testing we have done have cost far more than any care given. You can compare pricing to other countries like Japan and see that alot of the tests is where hospitals really make their money.
If you are hospitilized you don’t have a choice to go down the road for MRI’s etc. It would be nice to have clear options for Outpatient testing and the like. I just guess plan to pay the max for out of pocket expenses every year now as part of our budget. But chronic medical conditions can wreck people real quick. We get by, but the only vacations we get to have at this point are to hospitals, to eat crap food and sleep on a couch. Our healthcare company has actually been very helpful in finding services, making sure everything is in-network so we don’t go bankrupt. Plus we basically get them to argue with the hospitals over billing errors. And they do produce billing errors, we have got double billed multiple times when going from the ER to in-patient. And the ER’s have been horrible experiences. As a side not both the Hospitals we went to had signs in the ER saying they don’t accept MediCaid. If not for private insurance alot of them wouldn’t want to accept Medicare either.
So what has all that “health care” done for you except made you sicker??? I gave up “health care” years ago for a variety of alternative treatments, diet, etc. Haven’t gotten any better, but I haven’t gotten any worse either. If I’d stuck with allopathic medicine I’d probably be where you are now, or worse.
This, because REAL FREEDOM and a free market in medicine is off the table I guess.
If Trump follows through and requires medical price discovery it will have a huge impact. The cockroaches in the medical & insurance rackets don’t like anyone shining light in their direction.
However, the key phrase here is: if Trump follows through…. Talk is cheap. Let’s see if this actually happens.
You’re very optimistic. I think it’s just going to equalize the amount that all insurance companies pay, but at the highest level. This will likely end up costing consumers more, not less.
If Trump wants to make a difference, ban tort suits against docs and hospitals for all but the most egregious cases of malpractice. 20 years ago, it wasn’t unusual for a doc to carry a insurance coverage for over 1 million dollars. Back then, I knew a doc who was sued for being part of a secret conspiracy to cause a patient back pain. They alleged the doc, and all their other docs, were in cahoots to cause them pain. The case went all the way to the state supreme court before it was dismissed! Talk about a waste of time and money. I can only imagine docs have to carry for malpractice now. For those who attempt to bring demonstrably silly cases, automatically award costs to the defendant(s). Also, stop forcing hospitals to eat the costs on deadbeats, like illegals who use the E-room as a personal free clinic and bums who call 911 to ride the ambulance to a warm bed or the liquor store across the street. Hell, end the E-room and go to a pay up front or even pre-paid model. E-rooms are ripe for abuse and are loss leaders in all hospitals. Also, get the govt out of healthcare, since they have no business dictating to the states how many hospitals they can have, how many beds, how many machines, etc and where we get our insurance from (cross-border insurance was banned under FDR, if I remember correctly) The Feds got no right or power to control medicine and it all dates back to FDR’s fascist takeover of the US in the 1930s and his retarded mismanagement of the Depression.
BTW-last night, I was surprised to see a hospital or clinic had a billboard up on the main strip through town that advertised the exact rates they charge for a natural no-complications birth (6.5K, I think), a C-section (9K), and several other options. I was surprised! A hospital that puts their prices on a menu? I wonder how much a bandaid or an aspirin costs?
And how is that “no lawsuits, liability” working out for the pharma companies and their vaccines? They can actually KILL you or cripple you for life, and there is not one damn thing that anyone can do about it. Kinda like a cop does. Medical doctors are no better than me or anyone else, so why do they deserve special treatment if they make a mistake?
I didn’t say all, just in many cases, because many torts are frivolous. And I didn’t say docs are better than others. I do think they could do with some protection, though. I gave the example of that case that hit my doctor friend. All that legal liability goes somewhere. That and the many deadbeats exploiting our system is why you get to pay crazy inflated rates for aspirin, bed time, and just about everything else.
Also, you don’t necessarily have to make a mistake to be sued. Same doctor I know was also sued for a patient that died. He took the case knowing the patient was doomed- it was a kid who was born with some kind of degenerative brain condition that had no cure, only long-term treatment until he died. If I remember correctly, he was a vegetable the entire time he was alive. So it’s a tragic losing cause no matter what you do. That can’t be the only single case like that out there. Should the doc really shoulder that liability when there is no chance of not failing?
A lot of people automatically hate doctors because they’re assumed to all be rich and successful. When my doctor friend retired, he told me he was thankful to be getting out when he did. He stated he would not want to be starting out in medicine now (back in the mid-1990s). If we continue to have a system that is basically hostile towards medicine and its practitioners, how long before they stop practicing? If I remember correctly, I’ve seen quite a few news articles in recent years stating we have precisely that problem right now.
I won’t claim they’re all perfect or gods or above scrutiny; there are probably lots of bad ones, but I can’t help thinking if we purged the current system of government mismanagement and over-regulation and the tort-happy environment we have now, perhaps medicine would be better and cheaper than it is now.
Oh, additionally, it’s fedgov regs that limit how many hospitals, beds, and what equipment is available, also helping to drive up costs and artificial scarcity. For instance, back in my hometown, there was no CAT scanner in the whole town until the docs got together in the late 1970s and formed their own business to get around the govt’s regulators. It’s ancient history now, but it was a big deal back then.
Medical mistakes are now the third leading cause of death.
We need to see all the prices – columns for “insured”, “uninsured”, “Medicaid”, “Illegal immigrants”.
Let all Americans see how badly they are getting fucked.
It all sounds good but……..Does it matter what Executive Orders President Trump puts out? Any and all will be blocked by some two-bit judge somewhere.
You spelled “liberal” wrong.
Transparent pricing only works when you have a competitive marketplace, not a government-protected cartel that controls all medical decisions and choices.
So what? If you think a EO bullshit , smoke and mirrors , theatrical GESTURE will change this nightmare, you are high. Just sayin’…..