If consumerism is going to work, the consumers are going to have to think about costs. Problem is, the real consumers (physicians) don’t think about patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
At least not when it comes to diagnostics and hospitalizations.
Care is ordered by physicians – they write the scripts, order the tests, arrange the admissions, read the films and recommend specialists. And when it comes to generic v brand drugs, most of the time docs will write a script for a generic if one is available. Make no mistake, physicians are the consumers – they order the repairs and the parts, we’re the car.
Well, perhaps we’re a bit more involved in our repair than our vehicles are in theirs (although with cars sending emails and messages to cell phones, I’m not so sure…)
Back to the topic – when it comes to the expensive stuff, most docs don’t factor their patient’s costs into account. And until and unless they do, consumerism is not going to work very well.
thanks to the good folks at the Center for the Study of Health System Change for the research and heads’ up.
The doctor’s ‘job’ is to worry about your health. However, in addition to that they have to worry about you suing them and your insurance company reimbursing them. Consumerism and capitalism cannot work with medicine as long as the insurance company conspiracy exists. Work in a small doctor’s office for a week and you will understand. Anyone who hasn’t is simply clueless about the problems of health care.
It would seem that the cost of a procedure is up to the provider and can vary widely. A case in point is the costs billed by Daniel Freeman Marina Medical Center for three epidurals over the course of three consecutive months. The three identical epidurals where performed on my wife by the same doctor at Daniel Freeman Marina Medical Center on 02/06/2007, 03/06/2007 and 04/10/2007. The billing for the identical services was $1,998.00, $1,112.00 and $5,092.00 respectively.
Over the past six months since we received all the bills, we have contacted United Healthcare and Daniel Freeman Marina Medical Center over 18 times trying to get a rationale for the disparate charges, and to date no definitive answer. If I was an investor of United Healthcare, I sure as hell would want an answer.