Anything the government operates or subsidizes has exploding costs. So health care and education are the components of the economy with the steepest rise in prices over the last 25 years. Education is 75% run by the government and health care is 50% government.
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
Physicians’ Practices Vary: Some are Good, Some are Bad
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.
Monday Links
- 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.
Why A Physician Visit is Sometimes Billed at Inflated Hospital Prices
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.