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True. I have a family member that works insurance sales. Hospitals are supposed to charge per their contract with the insurer, yet they routinely amp up the price and send an extra bill to the patient. My family member has gotten some other family members out of high bills by simply calling the accounting department and questioning the practice.

And here’s a trick I discovered by accident: I was in an accident once. Went for ride in ambulance for brief ER check up. I had hit my head enough to cause a flash of memory loss. Tech on scene asked if I knew my head was bleeding and I didn’t remember it being hit. At ER, they said that was common and a longer memory loss would be something to worry about.

Anyway, I gave them my regular med insurance card at the hospital. They did not cover it because it was auto related. Now you’d think an ER visit would be expensive, which it would’ve been had I given the auto card. But because I didn’t, accounting must’ve treated me as some sort of non-payer and sent the bill immediately to collections, which is sold as discount.

So when I received a collection bill for $75 before even receiving a bill from the hospital, I happily paid it. BTW I did due diligence to ensure the collection bill was not a scam. The hospital called a month later and I gave them my payment info. They knew not to try to bill me twice apparently!

For the general thread subject, my belief is that gov was too involved in insurance long before commie care as the states dictated policy content (which is the main reason smaller insurers didn’t sell across state lines BTW).

Medical “insurance” has not been insurance for awhile. Insurance is financial mitigation of risk, period. In the med world, you see it used as some third party discount coupon. I.e., you wouldn’t use your car insurance for fuel fill ups and oil changes would you?

The system has basically removed the patient from the financial part of the deal. Coming to the posting of charges, there’s no reason the med world can’t act like the auto world - you go to a mechanic that charges a minimum rate for diagnosis. If not determined, they tell you you’d have to pay for more diagnosis time. If determined, they provide an estimate to fix. If, in the course of fixing, other things are discovered or if it costs more, they give you another estimate again. This does not happen in the med world because they are dealing with the carrier, not the patient.

So I agree philosophically with a price post, but I only see untenable logistics for a practice to do that in the current “insurance” environment because, even with the deductible in mind, the patient is charged differently based on the arrangement with the carrier and who that carrier is. To top it off, cash-patient rates are often lower than insured rates.

So to me, it’s just a matter of timing. Get the gov out of insurance first and THEN talk to me about posting rates. Nevertheless, if they are forced to post in this environment, it may do SOME good in the sense that the patient will see the markup the carrier indirectly imposes on the practice. It will serve as an eye opener to many.