One “surgery center” in Oklahoma is changing how health care procedures are done by bringing transparency to surgery prices. The third-party payment system is, as I’ve written in the past, the “original sin” of US health care. With all of the negative things going on with today’s economy, this story is a ray of sunshine and hope.
I know that I’ve seen hospital bills for $10,000 – $15,000 that our insurance company ends up paying $3,000 – $4,000. It’s ridiculous that a person willing to pay cash when they walked in the door would probably end up paying closer to the $15,000 figure than the $4,000 figure at a regular hospital. Even though there would be no adminsitrative cost for billing an insurance company, no risk of non-payment, etc.
We had an employee who had to have a stent. The cost was $16,000. During surgery, it was discovered that he actually needed 5 more stents for a total of 6. Cost? You guessed it – $96,000. Fortunately, this was before he came to work here.
I asked my doctor about health insurance and found their overhead was about 70%, just to take care of insurance, medicare filings, etc. Amazing.
I think cash with insurance reimbursement is the way to go. The hospitasls need to have soem was of dealing with folks who come into the emerghency room at all hours wiuth no real emergency – maybe 24 hour clinics with basic care at a reasonable cost.