
How surgery got cheaper for many Californians - e15ctr0n
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/upshot/how-common-procedures-got-20-percent-cheaper-for-many-californians.html
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lkbm
There was a Planet Money episode about insurers paying patients to choose
cheaper options[1]. That helps reduce the burden of shopping around on the end
user, so seems preferable to me.

In both cases, it's really telling to see that you can just go to another
facility and get (presumably comparable) care for a third the cost. I don't
know the best way to address that, but it shows it's something we need to work
on addressing.

[1]
[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/02/445371930/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/02/445371930/episode-655-pay-
patients-save-money)

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paulddraper
The hardest part is finding out which places are cheaper.

Many times, billing departments have straight out refused to tell me what I
will pay.

Everyone else is happy signing blank checks, so they don't see the problem.

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pfranz
Yes! I was trying to forecast how much I would pay for prenatal service. I was
told I needed to 1) call the doctor and get procedure codes for each visit 2)
call the billing department, give them the codes, and find out how much I
would get charged 3) call the insurance company to find out how much they'd
cover. The doctor would charge different rates for the same procedures to
different insurances and insurances would have different reimbursements. I
believe lab work would have to be done in addition to that.

It would be a huge amount of work to compare insurance plans or doctors. Even
chasing everything down after the fact requires hours on the phone.

