From the category archives:

Insurance

Medical Bills Suck

Ran across this blog entitled medical bills suck. Have to say we empathized with their situation. This is a young couple with a new baby and lacking insurance. That’s a tough spot. They are getting hit with medical bills for the birth of their child now, and the mom despairs about not being able to [...]

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Strep Test Cost Confusion: A case study with details

Attached is another case study that reflects the utter confusion that healthcare consumers face… feel free to download. Page two is where the ironic humor is captured.
My favorite quote from a “supposed” physician in the case study who’s phone number was provided by the Insurer… “You have reached Veronica and ‘for the masters use…’”
SUMMARY
With the [...]

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Rx Case Study: What you know but nobody would admit

Attached is the detailed case study with all of the gory details and named companies… BTW, anyone is welcome to use this case study as a basis for other initiatives or further study.
SUMMARY
change:healthcare knew that a wide range in costs for consumer pharmaceuticals existed at major pharmacy chains within the same marketplace. But there [...]

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Healthy Costs More

Interesting article popped up today on how the healthy population may cost more in terms of healthcare than the obese or smokers. The premise is that the healthy person lives longer and therefore has more opportunity to run up costs in part because they have a longer window to work in.
Let me add a little [...]

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Defining Quality in Healthcare

So how do people choose a healthcare provider? We jokingly refer to it as the three C’s – Cost, Conversation and Quality. The truth is there are a lot of factors that go into a healthcare decision, but quality would seem to be what trumps all. But how is quality defined?
There is a lot of [...]

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MedFICO score and You

Figuring out your credit card bill is tough, but you do it because it has implications for your credit score.
Figuring out what you owe the doctor is just as tough if not more so and often time far more expensive than that monthly credit card statement. At least you know what you bought with your [...]

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Tearing Down Healthcare. Maybe That’s What They Should Do

Got a chance this week to spend some time with a wonderful person, Susan Wentz, MD MS, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She’s a very insightful person when it comes to many things, especially healthcare. I mention her because she gets credit for this initial analogy. I just took it a bit [...]

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“Looking Out for Number One”

A quick Monday morning nod to the wisdom of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Having applied the wisdom of these lyrics for many years they once again proved their relevance as I read the article from Friday’s Minneapolis – St. Paul Star Tribune. The article is titled UnitedHealth billing flaws persist as company grew by David [...]

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NEJM begins to validate change:healthcare direction

I rest my FREAK’N case! Well, actually, i’m not that smart and certainly this is a loose stretch to use the term “validate” but it is nice to have the New England Journal of Medicine validate my notion of social influence as noted below in today’s post:
An interesting and somewhat shocking study published in [...]

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The Myth of the $4 Prescription and a Bit of Shakespeare

By way of explanation, the $4 prescription is a misnomer. Some are $4. But for the most part, what the pharmacy is doing is simply reducing your co-pay to $4. They still charge your insurance for the part above your co-pay, be it Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance. You’re still paying for the balance of the [...]

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