What's The Real Cost is designed by Regence to
spark discussion on understanding health care costs.
From the Blog
Here’s one of my favorite themes: not all health care reform requires an act...
Tweets about the Health Care Reform
politicalwind (James):Small-business owners see changes headed their way under health care reform http://bit.ly/aPrbkV #healthcare
Updated 14 minutes ago
i work at a doctors office. and its not our fault we don\\\'t know the costs!!!! it\\\'s the insurance companies that dictate how much will be covered. get up off your fat but and check your benefits yourself instead of making someone else do it! i mean wow! people know more about their car insurance than they do their own health insurance! shame
Health Insurance is does help dictate lower costs for the members, but without a pricing guide to go by on what the average cost is then even the health insurance company is kept guessing. Why is not your fault that you guys don\'t know an average price, I am not saying that all doctors office are unaware of pricing but a majority are. I just want an idea of what the cost is not a to the cent cost but most doctor office\'s can\'t even give you that. Why? I know my benefits but without prices knowing that is not super informative.
educate yourself... you spelled butt wrong, just fyi. if you mistake a common word like that, there's no telling what you mess up on when it comes to health care costs. and for insurance companies dictating how much of a service will be covered.....we do have an allowed amount. that amount is negotiated between providers and insurance companies. we don't want our customers paying an incredible amout for a service, and that's why this allowed amount it established. and benefits, they can sometimes be very hard to understand. companies like regence, who put in every effort to satisfy their member, make it that much easier for them to understand their benefits. be a little more curtious. i'm sure there are benefits in your plan that you're not 100% sure about.
Envision these scenarios: You see an in network doctor who charges $1000 for a service. The allowed amount is $500, and your benefits are at 80% of the allowed amount. You pay $100, the insurance pays $400, and the provider writes off $500. You see an out of network doctor who charges $1000 for a service. The allowed amount is $500, and your benefits are at 80% of the allowed amount, so you pay $100, the insurance pays $400, then you pay $500 more. Imagine you’re taking a math test, and the two situations above are included. Except, the variable X will be substituted for the allowed amount, and X will equal any number at all (though likely between $1 and $1000). You also don’t get to know the actual value of X until after the test is corrected, even though you studied, and did all of your homework. (2/3)
Allowed amounts are a fair practice, because contracts allow the insurance to drive business to the doctor, while keeping their payments (and your premiums! ) low. But if the system doesn't have a greater degree of transparency, how can you be a good shopper? What if that allowed amount in the second example was not $500, but $900? Whew! You're good when that explanation of benefits (EOB) comes in. But what if the allowed amount was $100? $920 bill for you; and you had 80% coverage, right? Regence is starting a good conversation, but the ironic thing is that the above examples highlight how people really don't, and currently can’t, know What The Real Cost Is. It’s a bit like BP creating a website about the growing problems of oil spills by the oil industry: it’s meaningful dialogue, and a step in the right direction, but calling for change, while pointing out your own practices seems like a hard position to maintain. (3/3)