441
submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

When a baby is about to arrive, every minute counts. Yet when Jen Villa of Salinas, California, was in labor, she and her partner drove 45 minutes in the middle of the night, bypassing nearby hospitals to reach one they could afford.

For years, the price of hospital care has been hidden from patients, companies and taxpayers who get the bills — and that secrecy has made a hospital visit in some places prohibitively expensive. It has also fostered disparities, forcing people to pay far more depending on where they go.

...

Federal rules put in place in 2021 require hospitals to make their prices public so consumers can compare them and know ahead of time how much going to one will cost. While many hospitals have been slow to comply, the emerging picture has revealed imbalances that leave patients like Villa weighing saving money against being seen by a preferred doctor or at facilities closer to home.

A Bloomberg News analysis of data compiled by Rand Corp. found more than 350 hospitals in communities across the US with significantly lower-cost competitors within 5 miles. More than half the time, the less expensive facilities had quality ratings that were similar or superior to their pricier neighbors. If patients are willing to travel as far as Villa did for lower cost care, they’re likely to find it: Almost half of US hospitals are within 30 miles of a significantly less expensive competitor, according to Bloomberg’s analysis of the Rand data.

Such inconsistencies seem to defy the normal market forces that shape prices for most goods and services...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Cheers@sh.itjust.works 46 points 6 months ago

Speaking from the pharmacy perspective.

Banks wove their way into drug transactions as a middleman called Pharmacy benefits managers. They stand between insurance and pharmacies to prevent collision, but instead, what we see is insurance companies pay a lot for drugs, while pharmacies see very little for that drug. Over 50% is being taken by the PBM because they're "preventing" collision. Don't even get me started on the vertically integrated pharmacies like CVS and United who abuse their position to force consumers to use their pharmacies instead of competitors or use "technological advancements" to keep their prices lower than their competitors.

NYC is currently trying to pass legislation to fix this, but that's only at the state level.

Wall Street needs to get the fuck out of healthcare and healthcare needs to stay the fuck out of Wall Street. Once a healthcare org talks about share holders, we're no longer talking about patients.

this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
441 points (97.8% liked)

News

21700 readers
3108 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS