Companies that help bargain down the price of medical tests and procedures are emerging in the wake of increasing use of consumer-directed health plans:
After concluding that Mr. Fontana was not getting the best possible price, the company’s representatives called the imaging facility and demanded a lower one, promptly saving him $200 “” minus a 35 percent collection fee.“I asked before I went in to the clinic how much it would cost, and they just will not tell you,” he said later. “I didn’t know until I got the bill, and at that point I figured I had nothing to lose.”
The savings are possible for one reason: medical care is often priced with the same maddening, arbitrary opacity as airline seats and hotel rooms.
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Scrubs
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Those of us providing service whine and moan about having to deal with third party payors—but then we pepetuate that by charging exobitant prices (relative what we are actually willing to take from other customers) to patients that we bill directly.
I charge the same price all patients all the time. That leave out Medicare and contracts with insurers, but my I do not rob Peter to pay Paul and think it more moral and fair.
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