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kestrellHospitals and Insurers Didn’t Want You to See These Prices. Here’s Why.
By Sarah Kliff
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/22/upshot/hospital-prices.html
But data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden.
It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy test.
And it provides numerous examples of major health insurers — some of the world’s largest companies, with billions in annual profits — negotiating surprisingly unfavorable rates for their customers. In many cases, insured patients are getting prices that are higher than they would if they pretended to have no coverage at all.
At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a colonoscopy costs ...
$1,463
with a Cigna plan.
$2,144
with an Aetna plan.
$782
with no insurance at all.
Until now, consumers had no way to know before they got the bill what prices they and their insurers would be paying. Some insurance companies have refused to provide the information when asked by patients and the employers that hired the companies to provide coverage.
This secrecy has allowed hospitals to tell patients that they are getting “steep” discounts, while still charging them many times what a public program like Medicare is willing to pay.
The peculiar economics of health insurance also help keep prices high.
By Sarah Kliff
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/22/upshot/hospital-prices.html
But data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden.
It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy test.
And it provides numerous examples of major health insurers — some of the world’s largest companies, with billions in annual profits — negotiating surprisingly unfavorable rates for their customers. In many cases, insured patients are getting prices that are higher than they would if they pretended to have no coverage at all.
At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a colonoscopy costs ...
$1,463
with a Cigna plan.
$2,144
with an Aetna plan.
$782
with no insurance at all.
Until now, consumers had no way to know before they got the bill what prices they and their insurers would be paying. Some insurance companies have refused to provide the information when asked by patients and the employers that hired the companies to provide coverage.
This secrecy has allowed hospitals to tell patients that they are getting “steep” discounts, while still charging them many times what a public program like Medicare is willing to pay.
The peculiar economics of health insurance also help keep prices high.
