What Every Patient Should Know About Shopping for Health Care

[Sangye]

I found this article today and thought it might help a lot of people in this group. It probably doesn't apply to those of you outside the US with nationalized health care.

What Every Patient Should Know About Shopping For Health Care | CommonHealth

[Dumpy]

Sangye when I was going through my first surgeries with my ENT and the follow up cleanings I found out thru my ENT that it would be more cost effective if I would come to his office (which is about 35 miles away) for the follow ups which were 2 weeks apart at the time. When I checked the price for the cleaning of my sinuses at the hospital where he did my surgery was $1,500 per visit but if I went to his office it was $400. The reason they got more at the hospital was because he was considered a surgen and at his office he was considered a Doctor.

[Sangye]

Holy smokes, what a difference!

[drz]

Unless you are paying it all of your pocket, our broken health health care system here, has no incentive for either the patient or the insurance companies to try save money. Costs by providers are past on through the consumers to insurance companies and then back to consumers in higher premiums, and higher profits to the insurance companies, often without us knowing anything about the actual costs. The couple of times when I tried to save my insurance company money I was discouraged and told their policies did not allow it unless i wanted to pay the whole costs out of my pocket so one time I had to under go a $2000 MRI instead of repeating a $50 hearing test to rule some thing out.

[Psyborg]

I had a similar issue with a prescription refill. Because I was on a plan at work that required 3 month refills on maintenance drugs they made me fill 90 days of CTX 3 weeks before I was done with it. Then I'm left with poison to deal with I argued with them and they basically shut me down. I think it was $600 wasted.

[drz]

I had a similar issue with a prescription refill. Because I was on a plan at work that required 3 month refills on maintenance drugs they made me fill 90 days of CTX 3 weeks before I was done with it. Then I'm left with poison to deal with I argued with them and they basically shut me down. I think it was $600 wasted.

I had some similar last year when I left a hospital to go to a nursing home. I was given several thousand dollars of prescriptions when I was discharged but the nursing home would not allow me to use those. I had to buy them all again through their pharmacy and throw away the meds i brought with me. What a waste.

[pberggren1]

I had a similar issue with a prescription refill. Because I was on a plan at work that required 3 month refills on maintenance drugs they made me fill 90 days of CTX 3 weeks before I was done with it. Then I'm left with poison to deal with I argued with them and they basically shut me down. I think it was $600 wasted.

That is quite a waste for sure. I paid about 45 bucks a month for ctx at 125mg per day. So how does it cost you 600 for 3 months? It seems to me you are being overcharged.

[Sangye]

Phil, it's no secret that Americans pay the price for the world to have cheaper drugs. The majority of our drugs are unbelievably more expensive here than anywhere else in the world. Pair that with the huge number of uninsured and under-insured people, and you get the mess we have.

[pberggren1]

I know Sangye. It just really irks me, that's all.