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PaperclipPerfector  16d ago (text post)   30799 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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You already agreed that it can have value. Just give them the information that you have. You're out of excuses.

I did not.

Yes you did.

...did you listen to what I said at all?

Yup. You said that costs sometimes matter. Just inform your patients.

The cost for prescription drugs is reasonably knowable and often knowable with respect to how your insurance covers them. We choose with this information in mind and generally involve patients in shared decision making if such a thing is applicable for that clinical situation.

When you come to my office for an office visit I do not know in advance what I will bill for, because that depends on what you tell me. I can't tell you that in advance. No information is available beforehand. It is also not relevant because I will either have a cash pay fee schedule or you will pay a copay or other fee depending on your insurance. Both the cash pay fee schedule and copay/coinsurance exist independent of whatever billing codes I use and what value is being assigned to them.

For hospital based care, which is what we spent most of this conversation talking about, PATIENTS CANNOT MAKE DECISIONS BASED OFF OF PRICES.

The price and cost are not what the patient pays.

Thank you for affirming my belief that Americans cannot be trusted to reform healthcare in a sensible way.

You don't know in advance of the visit, but you know before you take other actions. At that point, inform your patient.

PATIENTS CANNOT MAKE DECISIONS BASED OFF OF PRICES.

This is definitely a lie.

This is definitely a lie.

The prices have no relationship with what the patient pays. Why do you not understand this? What is so hard to understand about that?

That is exactly the problem, though. If healthcare is going to be a paid service provided by the market, pricing for the end user should be clear and telegraphed. If it’s going to be some kind of nebulously complex system where many people pay different things for the same product, then we may as well just have single payer, if only for clarity’s sake.

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I'll take your silence to be an admission that you can inform your patient before you take other actions.

You can provide your patient the information that you have, as we have discussed over and over again.

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