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“If you knew what the price of items were at Wal-Mart before you went into the store to buy them, it would put Wal-Mart out of business.”

That has to be one of the single most insane statements ever written.Yet that’s exactly what many doctors and hospitals would have you believe about healthcare. If you knew the price before you went into the doctors office or hospital, it would put the healthcare provider out of business.

Excuse me?

No. It would not. In fact, it might make the patient consider whether they needed that service or not. It might make them question if they really need all 8 prescriptions.It might make the provider find ways to offer the procedure more cost effectively as John Stossel so elegantly pointed out about Lasik eye surgery.

When someone hesitates to tell you the price of an item, why do they do it?

4 Reasons Why People Hesitate to Tell you the Price:

• They are ashamed at having to charge that much
• They do not believe the product is worth the cost
• They prefer you make an emotional commitment to purchase before knowing the price
• They simply do not know the price (the fallback reason in healthcare)

Fortunately, rational thought does occasionally prevail. The recent post from KevinMD.com points out (from the physician’s perspective – no less) that price transparency won’t effect health care costs.

It won’t adversely impact the cost of healthcare. It will force providers to be more cost effective and up front about their costs. It will force consumers to be more selective and engaged in the purchasing decision.

But will knowing the price put healthcare providers out of business? Not likely. In fact, knowing the price seems to be working wonders for Wal-Mart and…oh…just about every other business model in the U.S.

Great article from a freelance writer in The Morning Call. Richard has some of the ledgers from NY and Pennsylvania banks the 1950s to 1960s showing how household expenses were distributed. Of particular note is that the family paid all of their medical bills in cash. When someone came down with a more serious illness, there were more and more payments finally totally a whopping $1084 for a fairly serious medical condition. It offers a great idea of household life during those times prior to privatized medicine and reminds us as we see the shift to consumerism in healthcare that history always repeats itself.

If you have ever wondered what would be a reasonable price for a medical service, you are not alone. Millions of Americans, especially those who are uninsured, walk into doctors offices every year with no idea of how much their care will cost. That’s a scary feeling, especially if you have to pay for all of it on your own, or if you are unsure how much of the costs your insurance company will cover.

How many people go to get their car repaired without knowing how much it will cost? Or without checking around for high quality, reasonably priced auto shops? I feel it’s safe to assume not very many. Why should our health care be any different? I would argue its more important than your auto repair.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Benjamin Brewer, Even Doctors Guess At Health Charges, asks “Why can’t you find out how much medical care costs before you’re treated?” Weird thing is, he’s a doctor. Shouldn’t he know? Or at least have an idea of where to find some information on costs?

Well he doesn’t. And like countless other Americans, especially those striving to save money on high deductible plans or uninsured, he was in the dark about how much his daughter’s stitches (which were needed while on vacation) were going to cost at a near by hospital – how about $63.62 a stitch ($827 total)!!

I am in the same boat (no pun intended here)… I fell off a boat and went to the ER a few days later fearing a broken foot. I told the ER doc that I was on a high deductible health plan and did not want any unnecessary tests run. At the end of it all the doctor checked me out, did not feel that I even needed an xray, and sent me home with a prescription for pain medicine.

A few weeks later I got a bill for $604 from the hospital for my emergency room visit (billing code 99284). Then a week later another bill from the ER doc for about $260. My ER bill was negotiated down by my insurance carrier to $440, and my doctors bill down to $120 making my total out-of-pocket $600. That experience will certainly make me think twice about getting treated the next time I think I “broke” my foot. Also it made me wonder if my experience at one of the other 3 hospitals in my area, or even the acute care clinic, would have been less expensive. I should have done a little bit of research.

Hence why I am bringing our new MEDSTIMATE ratings to your attention. If our new Medstimates were up and running, I could have checked them out to see how much I could have expected to pay for my “broken” foot. Here is a more detailed example of how you can use the new Medstimate ratings: I could have looked up Vanderbilt, Saint Thomas, Centennial and even Baptist and found out how much I could have expected to pay at each hospital for my emergency room visit. Maybe at the end of the day I would have made the same decision, however I would have had a better idea of how much I may be asked to pay (and maybe kept my mouth from hitting the floor when I got the bill).

If you are uninsured the Medstimate can also be very helpful. Rather than paying full price for your medical services (no one on insurance pays full price… why should you?) you can look up the Medstimate for your particular services (or provider) and use it as a benchmark for negotiating your bill. You should never pay the full billed amount, and now the Medstimate provides you with an educated price range closer to what you should pay.

If anyone has any questions… doesn’t understand… it never hurts to ask. We have officially launched our Medstimate in relation to diagnosis and medical services will be coming in the next couple months… Hip Hip Hooray for TRANSPARENCY!!