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The Goodman Institute Health Blog

Category: Cost of Healthcare

Physicians’ Practices Vary: Some are Good, Some are Bad

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Devon Herrick

I am (generally) a big fan of doctors experimenting with different forms of medical practices. Some doctors are sole proprietors and work mostly alone in their office. Years ago, I went to a doctor who did not accept insurance and would not make appointments. His office was small since he didn’t require a billing staff and was very efficient. His prices were transparent and quite low ($35 office call in 1993).

Another physician, this one from Northern Virginia, pioneered primary care consultations by telephone. Doctalker Family Medicine would do house calls, in-office visits and consultations by phone. Each service came with a different price tag. He did not accept insurance, but his office would help patients fill out an insurance claim form for a modest fee. Most of his consultations were by phone.

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Monday Links

Posted on August 7, 2023August 6, 2023 by John C. Goodman
  • After a heart attack your odds of survival are greater when the heart surgeons are away from the ER.
  • Spending down assets in the last years of life? Only 1 n10 seniors has purchased long term care insurance.
  • Scott Adams has a solution for male loneliness: get an AI girlfriend.
  • 45% of all adults say they are interested in weight loss drugs.
  • “At nearly one in three births, our rate of cesarean section deliveries is considerably above the 10 to 20 percent level that public health experts consider an acceptable benchmark.”(NYT)
  • Where your ham comes from. It’s so awful, I couldn’t finish reading it.
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Why A Physician Visit is Sometimes Billed at Inflated Hospital Prices

Posted on August 6, 2023August 5, 2023 by Devon Herrick

Hospitals are the worst place to receive care if there are any other choices. Hospital prices are far higher than the same services available elsewhere. I often tell the story of my wife unknowingly checking on getting a CT scan at a hospital outpatient facility. She discovered that her share of the cost was going to be $2,700. That wasn’t the price; that was just her share of the cost. The price was higher. I quickly found a free-standing radiology clinic willing to do the same procedure for $403. Why was it lower? It wasn’t that one CT scanner was better than the other. It was that one was at the hospital where prices are always higher.

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Saturday Links

Posted on August 5, 2023August 5, 2023 by John C. Goodman
  • In defense of drug decriminalization: what Oregon and Portugal got wrong: Jacob Sullum and  Jeffrey Singer.
  • Biden’s attack on Short-term insurance is not only bad policy, it’s cruel.
  • Cato: Extend OTC status to all birth control pills, not just one.
  • Why it ls hard to know whether you own your own cells.
  • If you give people a free 10k, what will they do with it? HT: Tyler
  • Dylan Scott asks: Why doesn’t health insurance pay for more mental heath therapy?
  • I answered this question more than two decades ago: here, here and here.
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For many years, our health care blog was the only free enterprise health policy blog on the internet. Then, when the NCPA closed its doors, the health blog stopped as well.

During this five-year hiatus no one else has come forward to claim the space. So, my colleagues and I have decided to restart the blog in connection with the Goodman Institute. We invite you and others to use this forum to share your views.

John C. Goodman,

Visit www.goodmaninstitute.org

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