Nope.
I learned about New Choice Health today from a podcast on NPR's Planet Money. NewChoiceHealth, Inc. is a leading online comparison shopping marketplace built for the sole purpose of providing healthcare consumers a way to save money. Consumers can easily locate medical facilities and compare medical procedure costs for common procedures such as MRIs, CT Scans, Mammograms, and more. You can shop nationwide or right in your own local market from over 20,000 medical facilities for over 400 of the most commonly performed medical procedures.
The podcast's topic was related to health care and why hospitals charge so much. That's a big bucket and a topic all by itself for another time. The part that struck me was the ease at which the average patient (consumer) can shop for medical services using NewChoiceHealth.com.
First some background about the founder. From their About Us page:
"Brad Myers is a medical cost expert and a founder of NewChoiceHealth.com. Brad has over 24 years of broad experience in the healthcare industry with extensive knowledge in medical cost informatics, healthcare insurance, managed care, clinical laboratory, and health and life insurance. It was his passion that drove him to bring price transparency to healthcare consumers through the web site www.NewChoiceHealth.com. It’s a simple message we are trying to bring to consumers, "shop and save!"
Being a "50-something" I decided to select an example of something near and dear to my... well... er... um... heart. Here's a partial look at a search done for a colonoscopy in the Portland, Oregon area and the dramatic differences in pricing:
As I said before, the overall cost of health care is a topic for another day. But I need to make an important point. Many of us are fortunate enough to have insurance coverage, and our out of pocket costs for a procedure like this is small, relative to the published prices. Because of that insurance, we simply don't have a good feel for what something costs. Frankly, I was shocked to know the cost - and the range of costs.
For everyone thinking about any sort of medical procedure (even you, "Perfect Specimen John,") shop around. You will likely save yourself some money. For those procedures covered by insurance, the more we take action to reduce costs, the more competition there will be, and the lower costs will become. Economics 101 - yet another topic for another day.
Dave
3 comments:
Interesting. This is a much needed service.
I wonder how much difference it makes to people who have insurance with preferred provider organizations (PPO). If I understand the way they work, they provide services well below standard rates.
I can see this being very beneficial to people with, of course, no insurance or high deductible insurance.
By the way, I'm not the perfect physical specimen, but I've been told on good authority who he is...
I forgot one thing I was going to write in my first comment.
It kind of makes you wonder about the low cost provider. Does the saying, "you get what you pay for" come into play.
John,
Good points. My Primary Care Physician is part of a PPO and for the most part, his fees may be reasonable. I think where the cost differences are more pronounced is when he might send a patient to get an MRI, for example. The NPR podcast made the point that a hospital is an expensive place to have that done since they need to maintain enormous overhead. A clinic down the street doesn't have the same costs.
Your "get what you pay for" is a valid concern - especially for health care. The ironic twist in the podcast was that the provider "down the road" was less expensive that the hospital AND had a newer, better MRI machine.
NPR has been focusing on health care a lot lately. You may want to check them out.
Thanks,
Dave
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