Patients On Their Own Have No Bargaining Power?
A Long Beach hospital charged Jo Ann Snyder $6,707 for a CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis after colon surgery. But because she had health insurance with Blue Shield of California, her share was much less: $2,336. Then Snyder tripped across one of the little-known secrets of healthcare: If she hadn’t used her insurance, her bill would have been even lower, just $1,054…Unknown to most consumers, many hospitals and physicians offer steep discounts for cash-paying patients regardless of income. But there’s a catch: Typically you can get the lowest price only if you don’t use your health insurance.
More on healthcare’s high cost in the LA Times.
I often wonder why insurers don’t help enrollees by steering them to these types of deals. Ms. Snyder’s insurer could have arranged with Ms. Snyder pay the entire bill and reimburse for, say, half. Her insurer could then have called the CT Scanning company, scheduling and arranging for the cash transaction. Both Ms. Snyder and her insurer would have saved money. An added benefit is that medical service providers would also have an incentive to cut these types of deals knowing their competition was also looking to avoid losing business.
I’m surprised more people don’t know this. It needs to be advertised. How would that not be pro-consumer?
Wow, I had no idea. And why would I? What incentive does the practitioner have to tell me this? They want to make as much money as possible.
I’ve had a similar (albeit less costly) experience at the dentist.
You can use your health insurance. You just pay cash and then file the claim yourself. This gets the physician or hospital or whatever out of the middle.
Some providers are price discriminators, however, and won’t give you the cash price if you say that you have insurance. So, simply say you are a cash paying patient from the beginning and don’t provide information about your health insurance, if any, until you find out if there is a cash discount.
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