What's the Real Cost
Designed by Regence to spark discussion on understanding health care costs.
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Becoming an educated and engaged patient is an ongoing process. Share the journey of three bloggers – Christine, Susan and Joanna – who are patients as well as health insurance employees. They talk about the complexity of infusing the "Five Questions" into their own patient experience, and invite you to comment, question and share your story about challenging the system to deliver quality, affordable care.
Last week I came across a story in the New York Times that really set my mind to spinning. The article, “Chefs, Butlers and Marble Baths: Hospitals Vie for the Affluent” described a world of high thread count sheets, marble bathrooms, and dinners of lobster tail or Colorado rack of lamb – in h...
If your doctor calls for an MRI when an x-ray would be just as good, is that a question of medical justification, or is it a matter of ethics?
A new ethics manual from the American College of Physicians (ACP) says doctors have a moral obligation to consider cost when they diagnose and treat us. ...
One of the raps I hear against the whole “people should shop for health care” thing is that nobody can even tell what prices are from one place to another. Sure, one place might do spinal MRIs for $1100 and another might charge $3500 (actual figures) but:
A) How do you find the lower-cost pl...
We often see headlines about health insurance premiums going up, but we seldom see news about what’s making that happen: the cost of medical care.
That creates a vacuum of public understanding about WHY premiums are going up. The pain and frustration about high premium come through loud and ...
A doctor writes that we should all get basic health care. Hard to disagree. But who decides what’s basic?
It’s not a rhetorical question – we have to answer it as part of the federal health reform law. The Affordable Care Act requires Health and Human Services to define “essential hea...
Last Friday I went to the doctor complaining of chest pain, shortness of breath and fatigue. Considering my history of asthma and my personal life status (I’m a full time working mother of a two year old, and my spouse is currently deployed to Iraq) – she believed the likely culprit was a change...
http://bit.ly/w2Bys9...
Funny how when you start asking what medical procedures cost, you can find out things you didn’t know. Like when my health insurance coverage didn’t stretch to a Pap smear every year, my doctor said I didn’t actually need it. For some reason, that little fact never came up until I asked about ...
Recently, I visited a new dermatologist for an annual preventive skin check, and asked about some skin changes I’ve experienced, probably due to stress. After my exam, the doctor agreed – your problem will likely correct itself when the stress subsides.
He suggested I either figure out how to m...
My doctor has been after me to get a bone density test, performed right there in her group’s office. I ignored her the first few times, then thought, “What the heck, I’ll get a baseline reading.”
Then I get the bill: $177. Now I feel stupid. I work for a health insurance company. I read a...
Last week one of my girlfriends was telling me about a recent trip to the emergency room with her infant daughter. The baby had an earache and had been crying for hours. My friend was pretty sure it was just an ear infection, but her pediatrician’s office was already closed for the weekend, and sh...
My grandpa is one of those fortunate few (or unfortunate, if you listen to him) who seems to have the proverbial “nine lives.” At 90, he’s had open-heart surgery twice, and two heart attacks, pneumonia and more. But recently he started feeling exhausted from the start of his day until the mome...
Several years ago I worked for a Louisiana State Senator who had a pet project: to reduce teen pregnancy in urban New Orleans. After having her own child at 16 and putting herself through the remainder of high school, college and law school as a single mom, she had a strong affinity for keeping kid...
BlueShield caps profits to help members with rising costs
Jun 8, 2011 | Posted by Christine 1 comments
BlueShield admits they can't correct rising health care costs, but they have a plan to help by capping profits. Read more......
The development of 'biogenerics' is expected to put the brakes on the profit bonanza from such drugs as Abbott Laboratories' Humira... Read more....
Not only is it more expensive to buy gas in some cities, it's also pricier for health care depending on where you live. Read more in an article by the Boston Globe....
Two drugs, both work about the same. One costs $50 a dose, the other costs $2000 a dose. Your insurance covers both and your co-pay is the same. Should it matter to you –personally – which one you choose?
If you answered “no,” let’s see if your answer stays the same in the next scenario.
...
Several experts annually take a deep dive into where our health care dollars go, and they all come to the same conclusion: “… healthcare costs are determined by the quantity of services provided at a given cost."
And the leader in growing costs? Outpatient care. Why? In part this i...
As a mom and someone who continues to watch that ‘baby weight’, I live by nutrition labels. Not only do I want to ensure my child is getting the nutrition she needs, but I’m constantly reviewing sodium and sugar counts, carbohydrate percentages and more to keep my weight down. It feels good to...
Medical groups are lobbying Sebelius to cover them under the reform bill. Her choices will make or break the plan... and the budget. Read more here... http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/04/how-rich-health-care-mandates-could-bust-the-budget/...
In his article We're targeting the wrong culprits on health costs, Paul Shannon talks about the astronomical fees that are paid out to pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, docs, hospitals and more - connecting it to our health care tab overall. Is he right, are we targeting the wrong cul...
Yes, Prof. Krugman, patients ARE consumers and knowing it gives us power
Apr 26, 2011 | Posted by Susan 4 comments
According to New York Times columnist and Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman, patients are not consumers, nor should they be.
Really? I’m not buying medical attention? I’m not paying for tests?
Prof. Krugman is mixing up two concepts and throwing out both of them. He repudiates a Rep...
It’s always interesting when an insider talks about the gulf between what a strategy was supposed to accomplish and what actually happened. So, I was fascinated to read this British doctor explain how his country’s National Health Service has “been there, done that” on the strategy of preven...
Health care costs = worst grade on health journalism report card
Apr 12, 2011 | Posted by Gary 1 comments
NOTE: WTRC is very pleased to introduce our first guest blogger, Gary Schwitzer, who publishes and blogs at HealthNewsReview.org, which evaluates health articles and gives some tools and guidelines for journalists to improve their reporting. We’ve blogged and tweeted about Health News Review’s 7...
Many employers are now encouraging their employees to participate in high deductible health care plans. This means that employees pay a far cheaper monthly fee (premium) for insurance, but pay more for all of their medical expenses up front before insurance kicks in. For example, an employee might ...
Recently I read an article about a proposed increase the Pentagon has recommended to increase health care premiums for military retirees and their families. The purpose? To ease federal budget problems, given the increasing cost of health care.
An active duty military wife and health plan employee,...
Last Thanksgiving while my husband and I were visiting his family, his grandfather had a heart attack. He survived, but the attack landed him in open heart surgery then a rehabilitation center, and ultimately to temporary living with my in-laws as a result. An aging diabetic, his health was in turmo...
What will employer sponsored health care look like in 10 years?
Mar 23, 2011 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
Human Resource Executive Online recently posted a survey of HR managers and employee-benefits managers from 588 companies employing 1000 plus. The survey findings were surprising - only about 38 percent of respondents are sure their company will offer healthcare benefits to employees directly in jus...
Reform Turns One: Basics - What it Does and Doesn't Do
Mar 22, 2011 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
Wondering what the health care reform law really does? What it doesn't? Ezra Klein of the Washington Post took a stab at explaining just that... ...
If you’ve read my blog posts in the past, you know that I had a premature baby a little over a year ago. While my little girl is now the picture of health, and completely caught up with other kids her age, the beginning of her life was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me. No new mother wan...
Any day of the week you can see health news reported that brings to mind one or more of the 5 questions.
How much is it? Do you really need a robot to do that prostate surgery? Sure, it’s cool, but it costs a lot and isn’t necessarily better.
Is there a lower-cost option? What if you have...
All across the country, small businesses are being hit with health insurance increases and it hurts. And it’s spurring debates in state legislatures from Oregon to New Hampshire about how to control premiums. State insurance regulators tell lawmakers that the problem is medical costs, and premiums...
Massachusetts is about two years ahead of the rest of the country on reforming access to health insurance coverage, including subsidies and individual mandates to get everyone covered. <br>
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But the rising cost of medical care still pushes some people over the edge, financially.
A r...
Matter of quality: State certification of medical imaging techs
Mar 3, 2011 | Posted by Susan 2 comments
Some people don’t see the point of consumer involvement in health care. After all, everybody knows the right thing to do and does it. Right? If only. There is wide variation not only in standards of care but in the training and certification of people we depend on, like technicians who handle mach...
Dartmouth study says when it comes to health care, it really does matter where you live
Mar 1, 2011 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
If you live in St. Cloud, Minnesota with heart disease, you're half as likely to undergo cardio bypass surgery than if you lived in Detroit Lakes, and more than twice as likely to undergo back surgery than if you lived in Rochester. Are people just unhealthier in St. Cloud? Or does geography really ...
Well do I remember my concern on feeling my daughter’s fevered forehead and reaching for the thermometer. Now, pediatricians are telling us there’s no cause for alarm, the body is just doing its job of slowing the growth of bacteria and viruses.
And, doctors want us to know we shouldn’t be s...
Massachusetts Governor Offers Solution to Rising Health Care Costs
Feb 18, 2011 | Posted by Christine 1 comments
Should your doctor be paid every time you visit? Or should he/she be paid depending on whether your health actually improves?
See, if your doctor gets paid mainly when your health improves, that motivates him/her and staff to do things like call or email to make sure you are taking your medication,...
Where does health care reform stand? Here's a cheat sheet...
Feb 18, 2011 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
Lately the headlines these days have been hard to keep up with - is reform passed? Are the Republicans blocking it? Is it being implemented? The NY Times took a stab at answering those questions... Check out this chart. ...
When I delivered my daughter in 2009 I chose my doctor based on her proximity to my hospital of choice. That hospital was known for competitive and complex prenatal care, so in my mind it was the best. After getting the bill, I’m convinced it was also the most expensive.
That extra cost was passe...
I was fascinated by this New York Times piece pitting Mayo Clinic’s health website against WebMD. The author’s opinion is that Mayo is more calm and fact-based, and WebMD Is more fear-mongering.
That points up a divide in our culture about health and medical treatment. Some people just don’t...
This doctor suggests not getting those full body scans advertised in your local media because they are likely to generate false positives – and money in the bank for the provider.
But we like tests. They tell us what’s going on, right? Not necessarily. As the doctor explains, if you aren’t lik...
Cost Shopping for X-Rays and MRIs Might Be Easier Than We Think
Feb 3, 2011 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
Do you know the sound of a seal barking? Well, a few weeks back that’s what my 15 month old daughter sounded like. Her coughing was so defined it was most definitely “croup” – a tightening of the airway, often caused by a virus.
After a doctor’s visit, a week of steroids and subsiding s...
Conflicting Reports: Health Care Reform Makes Costs Rise ... Or Does It?
Jan 28, 2011 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
This morning I opened my email inbox to find contradictory headlines, “HHS Report Finds Lower Insurance Premiums Due to Reform” and “Did Obama Administration Stretch Health Care Stat?” So who’s got it right? Well, it seems both sides have compelling stories to tell. You decide, and let...
Top Medicare official doubts health care promises will stick
Jan 26, 2011 | Posted by Christine 1 comments
Two of the central promises of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law are unlikely to be fulfilled, Medicare's independent economic expert told Congress on Wednesday.
The landmark legislation probably won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance i...
Contrary to critics fears that patients would be harmed, an insurance company tried paying doctors a fixed amount per patient. What was the result? You might be surprised... http://bit.ly/f6F6yz...
If you don’t know Atul Gawande yet, check out him out on the Colbert Report.
Sure, he’s talking about his latest book, but this is really important stuff: ICUs and surgical teams that use checklists reduce hospital infection rates by one-third to one-half, and reduce death rates from complicatio...
A funny thing happens when we use insurance to pay for health care. We forget it’s really other people’s money (OPM).
This article explains one example. Pharmaceutical companies make an expensive new drug. It competes with other medications that work as well for the vast majority of people, ...
You might feel as if you never want to see the inside of a mall, right now. But you know and I know that someday we will again find ourselves in some sprawling complex of shops. And when that day comes, let’s be as savvy as these shoppers, using their cell phones right in the store to compare pric...
Doc offers advice on how to negotiate prices w/ other docs
Jan 7, 2011 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
Will a talk with your doctor help "trim" your medical fees? Quite possibly, according to this doctor. Read this article, where he offers some sound advice on how to do it....
Right after college I moved to Washington, D.C. to work as an aide to a Congressman. I made barely enough to pay rent, much less health insurance – but I have a chronic condition, so I definitely needed the coverage. To keep down my costs, I opted for a high-deductible, low monthly cost plan. ...
Here’s an example of paying attention to “the real cost.” When Massachusetts paid for smoking-cessation help for Medicaid recipients, they stopped smoking. But the state didn’t do it purely out of interest in their welfare. It was also an experiment in whether this would reduce health costs....
This week I ran out of a prescription I need to manage a chronic illness I have. The medication isn’t a heavy narcotic, and is fairly common for patients with my condition.
However, there is an outside chance that I could develop pancreas issues with long-term medication use. To check on this, my...
It's an unfortunate fact that health care represents the main long-term challenge for the country's budget. Simply put, health care costs too much and we can’t afford it. So when the co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform released their draft proposal o...
Should states be able to opt in what they want to on reform? http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/11/let_states_innovate_on_health.html...
What happens if every hospital wants a $150 million proton scanner? One hospital CEO /doctor says it sets off another battle in the “medical arms race,” which is not good for patients.
He writes in his blog –“Protons killing cancer and our budget” – and touches on “the real cost”...
As proof that a large group of people's behavior can have a significant effect on costs, the Census Bureau discovered that its 2010 count cost about $1.6 billion less than budgeted. The reasons were pretty basic stuff – small differences that added up to big savings. In similar ways, individual ac...
Every election I am amazed at how excited I get about one of our most valuable rights as Americans. It’s the beauty of living in a democracy, and all that it stands for… speaking our piece to our elected officials, and reminding them that we have the power to evaluate their performance, and judg...
Who's your insurance commissioner? And why should you care?
Nov 1, 2010 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
You may be surprised... Insurance Commissioners have a lot more control over your health care post health care reform law taking effect. What should you know about it? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130920555...
When you want to know why your health insurance premiums are going up, here’s one reason:
The most effective cancer drug for certain leukemias costs $50,000 a year and people who take it live years longer. At $50,000 a year, that’s a lot of premiums (and tax dollars for those on government prog...
Providers Talk Electronic Medical Records- How many are using them?
Oct 26, 2010 | Posted by Christine 0 comments
Reposted from www.Politico.com PULSE e-mail blast:
IT trade group CompTIA will release this week research that finds that half of health care providers are using some form of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) - 34 percent are using full EMRs while 16 percent have a partial system. Of the remaining,...
Insurance Group CEO says fix reform now or small businesses will pay big
Oct 26, 2010 | Posted by Christine 2 comments
Policy makers need to reassess major components of health care reform or risk burying individuals and small businesses under health care’s rising costs.
Read more: Insurer group's CEO: Fix health reform, or small businesses will pay big | Nashville Business Journal...
Why has ER medical imaging tripled in a single decade?
Are we sicker, more accident-prone?
Did doctors find more conditions that only scans could see?
Not according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Research found:
• Patients with injury-related conditions were...
Have Your Health Care Costs Tripled? Study Indicates They Will Go Higher
Oct 13, 2010 | Posted by Christine 1 comments
We all have experienced, or know someone who has experienced, unaffordable and surprising medical bills. A few weeks back I blogged (link to past blog post) about my mom – who recently had surgery, and even after doing her homework was hit with thousands in charges that were completely unexpecte...
Frustration sometimes leads to extreme behavior. Remember the JetBlue flight attendant who got fed up and made an escape down an inflatable chute in early August? While there were plenty of jokes to be found in that very public example of exasperation, frustration — the feeling of helplessness, of...
Controlling costs in health care can be a touchy subject. Spending is out of control, and yet we don't want to negatively impact patient care. But sometimes we have to look at some underlying assumptions about health care practices. For example, is an in-person doctor visit always preferable? The re...
Remember George Carlin’s “7 dirty words you can’t say on the air”? Well, you can say them all now, on cable anyway.
BUT – here’s seven words that should make you suspicious of news articles reporting on medical research, according to this website run by longtime health writers.
I st...
Just over six months ago the new health care reform law passed, and there are a lot of outstanding questions for many consumers about what the new law means for them. Since the law is implemented in stages, there are several resources available to find out.
One component of the new law that is of s...
Up to 30% of health care dollars are wasted.
Minnesotans pay less to get about the same health outcomes as the highest-dollar county in the U.S.
Have you heard these claims? Now you can go to the source: Dartmouth Atlas of Care, where researchers dig through mountains of federal data to try and ...
*Printed in the WSJ, Page A20
'As a consequence of us getting 30 million additional people health care, at the margins that's going to increase our costs—we knew that," President Obama said at his press conference Friday in response to a question about rising health spending.
That wasn't how he ...
A few weeks back my mom called me, all upset about my grandma.
Turns out she refuses to take the medications her doctor prescribes in the way he ordered them. And it’s not for lack of prescription benefits or money, it’s because she says she knows her body better than he does. I don’t know, m...
This just in: Americans take a lot of medication. Half of us take one prescription a month – 10% more than a decade ago. Those of us taking more than one grew by 20%.
What’s up? The federal data shows lots of antidepressants. Kids have a lot more asthma than they used to. And teens take both an...
Here’s one of my favorite themes: not all health care reform requires an act of Congress.
Exhibit A was in my hometown newspaper this week.
Someone related an anecdote about a friend having some new prescription eyewear specifically for playing tennis. She inquired if the glasses were expensive ...
This week Health and Human Services announced that, as part of a $250 million federal health care reform allocation, $1 million will be awarded to separtely 45 states and the District of Columbia "to help improve the oversight of proposed health insurance premium increases, take action against insur...
What one doctor says about why it's important to discuss costs with patients in the exam room...http://tinyurl.com/2fwutvv....
Recently my mom underwent shoulder replacement surgery. Now she’s in a battle over bills because the post-surgery treatments cost more than she was allowed per her insurance contract. And my mom, being a pretty savvy health care consumer, asked about the cost of each procedure and post-operative t...
Did you know that according to a new survey - 47 percent of us agree with charging smokers more for health insurance? 43 percent of us feel the same about people who drink more alcohol than others. But only 26 percent of us feel that overweight people should be charged more.
And many large employer...
The new federal health care reform bill provides incentives to receive preventive care and health care services. And the services have been promoted as "free" under health care reform because there is no cost sharing for consumers. But is anything ever really free?
Every service we use - whether...
Financial planners say we should have enough savings to cover six months’ worth of household expenses. Few of us do. But my health plan has a “rainy day” fund. So does my car insurance, and my state’s unemployment insurance and worker compensation fund. State regulators require it as a consu...
We all knew technology was expensive, but how much is it?
Check out a dirty little secret of rising health care costs - technology.
Don't get me wrong, I use that technology and will be the first to admit it.
Learn more about the rising cost of technology in hospitals here.
~Christine at Regence...
We talk a lot on WhatsTheRealCost.org about doing comparison shopping for health care. While not every situation lends itself to that, joint replacement offers good opportunities for comparing not only the joint itself but the doctor and facility doing the work.
There are nearly a million joint repl...
Anyone remember the “continuous improvement” trend of the 1980s and 90s workplace? Well, now it’s arrived at U.S. hospitals. Hospitals aren’t factories, but they do have to be very efficient: have the right equipment in the right place at the right time, for the right patient, from glove...
How far would you travel for surgery? Medical tourism on the rise...
Jul 7, 2010 | Posted by Christine 1 comments
Would you drive to Colorado for a knee replacement? One man did, find out why. And tell us... how far would you go?...
My mother-in-law works for a local community hospital, and they continue to lose money – even though they have more patients coming in. Logic tells me that more patients equals more money, but reality isn’t always logical.
Cost shifting from Medicare (reimbursing hospitals less for Medicare r...
Last week I had an outpatient medical procedure that I’ve had a few times in the past. The test can often prevent cancer, and can be quite costly. Having had some symptoms recently that indicate that something could be wrong – I had the test immediately, no questions asked.
In fact, I was so fr...
Here at What’s the Real Cost, we’ve been sharing stories about our own and others’ adventures in the health care system that have led us to start thinking differently about what we each can do to lower medical spending.
So, I was delighted by a new study about cutting $700 billion a year in w...
If you think there’s no reason to shop for health care, check out this doctor’s blog post – her patients were skipping needed care because of high costs, even her own mother.
Affordable care was available, as the examples here point out, but it’s hard to find prices and comparison shop...
Last night I was chatting with a good friend of mine who is single and dating. She’s tried it all – online, blind dates, meeting guys at work, charity events – you name it, she’s been there looking. Some end nicely, others in disaster. But next week she’s going to try something different:...
A few weeks back I visited family in New Orleans, and the massive oil spill in the Gulf came up at a family party. My uncle works for a large oil company (I won’t say who, but it’s not BP), and since he is related in the oil industry, he was bombarded with questions about causes, clean up and ...
About two months ago I took my six month old to the pediatrician because she is allergic to every single brand of formula we had tried (and we tried every kind on the market). No matter the brand or base, her body’s reaction was terrible.
The doctor gave me a free sample of a new special type ...
"Free" Health Care and Other Myths of the New Health Care Bill
May 28, 2010 | Posted by WtRC 1 comments
The Patient Protection and Affordability Act (commonly referred to as PPACA – pronounced “P – Paca”) passed Congress and the President signed it into law. Being that this was the largest reform since Medicare and Medicaid in the 60’s, this was big news to me, but what made it even more i...
Last night I received some “Explanation of Benefits” forms in the mail from my primary health insurer (Regence). And what I found surprised me. Of the last five doctor’s appointments my daughter has been to, only one has yielded any diagnosis worth following up on.
Each office visit was at l...
In this economy everyone is focusing on how to cut costs. Commercials on TV are a great example of that. Have you noticed WalMart’s campaign? They started advertising living better while spending less. Car dealers offer years with no interest. And just yesterday I went shopping and found that eve...
Here's one of my pet peeves.
A news story says the FDA is about to vastly expand the market for statins (which control cholesterol) so healthy people can take them as "prevention" against heart attacks.
But, research says statins can cause diabetes. Experts say it's worth the risk because statin...
Last week my hypochondriac cousin told me about her latest ailments – all of which to me sounded like a sinus headache. However, she wasn’t convinced. So she sought out and visited a neurologist, and an MRI later, it was determined that it was just that – a sinus infection.
Her concern is wel...
Health insurance was born on the concept of neighbors ‘pooling’ their money together to take care of one another. It was this idea - formed in the early 1900s – that brought communities together to help each other pay for medical treatments they couldn’t afford otherwise.
As is today, usag...
Health Care Reform 101: So What Is It? And What's It Mean for Me?
May 27, 2010 | Posted by WtRC 7 comments
Check out your local or national news sources, open your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and walk into your nearest coffee shop – the talk is on the House’s historic health reform package passage last night.
In fact, nothing of this magnitude has touched our health care system since Medicare an...
Turn on any news channel this week and you’ll hear predictions about how many votes the Democrats have – or don’t have - to pass Obama’s health care reform bill.
Interestingly, if the bill passes, history will write that this Congress passed a historic health care package, marking this a t...
Health care reformers are passionate on all sides. Each side commissions studies that support their point, and another side fires back with their own study conflicting the first. The message is lost, and average Americans are struggling to make sense of it all. There’s finger-pointing, placing the...
Do you pay the same for your McDonald’s meal as the guy behind you in line at the drive thru? Or better yet, should you? That’s the type of question the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) is asking after a statewide investigation of health care costs.
The results of the investigation indicate...
Last week I took my daughter in for a pediatrician’s office visit. One of those many last minute, scary appointments you make when you have an infant screaming with a fever and you don’t know why.
After her examination the diagnosis was apparent: ear infection, and something else -- abnormal t...
October 14, 2009 I woke up at 5:30a.m.frantically shaking my husband and shrieking, “I think it’s time!” He was as surprised as I was – I wasn’t due for our first child for another month, and I was scheduled for a c-section in November. We had no idea that my water would just BREAK in the ...
Have you noticed in the health care debate how some people start talking about car insurance? Specifically the argument goes that all drivers are required to purchase car insurance, so why not mandate health insurance the same way and make everyone buy it?
The comparison is a little shaky, but int...
There’s a lot of passion in the health reform debate about who should do what. Health plans should take everybody. Premiums should be affordable. The system should be more efficient. I say, "Yes" to all of the above.
But there are some things doctors, hospitals, medicines and health plans just c...
Here’s what I want to know: how will health reform being considered by Congress affect what I pay for health insurance?
The Senate bill is estimated to cost around $900 billion; the House bill around $1.2 TRILLION (gulp). That money has to come from somewhere and I can’t shake the feeling that...
Have you noticed you can put "e-" in front of just about anything, and we all know what that means? We do so much online today – (r)e-tail, e-zines, e-trading and e-banking. And now there’s e-patient.
New research says that 61 percent of us go online for health information from trusted website...
After House Bill Passed, More Are Asking: What's The Real Cost?
May 27, 2010 | Posted by WtRC 0 comments
Real health care reform would put a halt to some of the $700 billion wasted each year in treatment and other expenses that do nothing to improve health.
The House bill does adopt new insurance rules and gets nearly everyone covered. But the consensus of news organizations around the country – an...
But does it work?
Even if we don't say that question aloud, we implicitly ask it in our everyday lives. Each time we consider buying a new product or service, we want to be sure that it does what it says it will do. No one wants to throw away money.
But for some reason, when it comes to health c...
New Video Demonstrates System Inefficiencies. Has This Happened to Anyone Else?
May 27, 2010 | Posted by WtRC 0 comments
The other day I got home from work and sorted through the endless amounts of junk mail and bills that I receive day after day. One piece specifically caught my eye this time – what looked like billing from my OB/GYN’s office. When you’re closing in on nine months pregnant, any piece of mail fr...
The other day I got an email from the salon where I get my hair cut. They wanted to let me know they're moving to a new location — a much bigger space. Uh-oh, I thought. And indeed, at the very end, the email said just what I suspected — that as a result of the bigger space, the cost of a haircu...
Did you catch President Obama’s speech to Congress on health care reform last week? He gave an accurate summary of the problems people have in getting, keeping and affording insurance. He even mentioned that medical costs will swamp the federal budget. But he didn’t talk much about how to curb t...
It's pretty amazing how many aspects there are to the ballooning cost of medical care. As I wrote in my last post, prescriptions are one place where we can be more savvy. Another savings area might be less obvious: the storing of medical information.
The root of the problem here is inefficient com...
Thinking back on that last post, about how it takes all of us to curb medical spending, reminded me of my personal attitude adjustment on this issue.
My health plan puts claims online so I can track them, and also shows what I paid and what the plan paid. That was an eye-opener. I thought I was pr...
Have you noticed the change? I'm talking about the change in the debate over health care reform. Lots of Washington politicians, now on their August break, have started focusing on health insurance reform rather than health care system reform. It might look like just a little shift in wording, but t...
This doctor has a couple of great stories about the “medical industrial complex” and why health care reform is hard-- http://tinyurl.com/THCB-lobster-and-lap-choley
After the lobster-salad analogy, he talks about high-tech driving up medical spending, not always for the better. I could relate ...
It's an understatement to say a lot of people are involved in pushing for health care reform. Trying to follow the progress can feel overwhelming. Even when we do our best to stay informed, it's hard at times not to wonder where each of us fits in as individuals. Are the decision-makers going pay at...
Does anybody else feel weird asking the cost of a lab test or a screening or even a check-up? I do. I was looking for a new dentist, one in my neighborhood, and I poked my head in the door of a small clinic and asked the woman at the desk, “How much is a routine cleaning?” Then she asked me, ...
Doesn't it feel as if everywhere you look these days, people are talking about health care reform? It's there on the daytime talk shows and the nightly news. Maybe you know someone who's worried about changes in their job's health plan. As the summer gets into full swing, and we're getting together ...
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