For five years, Caren Blanzy received the same treatment at the same medical office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regular injections gave her relief from involuntary muscle contractions caused by a neurological disorder, she said. Her insurance picked up the tab. Then, the health system that owns her doctor’s office changed how it billed for […]
Marty Makary’s July 12 op-ed, “For a wasteful Medicare rule, location is everything,” made a clear case: Too many Americans have been blindly led into a health-care affordability crisis. Even if they never set foot in a hospital, patients receiving care from hospital-affiliated providers face higher prices caused by so-called site-of-service payment differentials. As a […]
Georgann Boatright’s local hospital told her she’d need to pay an $8,000 “operating room” charge for a test she was pretty darn sure wouldn’t involve an operating room. So she went elsewhere, even though it meant driving to another state. Avoiding that charge required more than just a willingness to go — literally — way […]
For years, the price of an operation at my hospital has been radically different depending on the floor where it’s performed. Why? One spot was designated a hospital space; the other a non-hospital space. Patients were sometimes ushered to the location that generated the biggest profit based on their insurance type. It makes no sense, […]
Rising healthcare prices have long eroded American wages. They are doing that by eating into jobs. Companies shed workers in the year after local hospitals raise their prices, new research found. Higher hospital prices pushed up premiums for employees’ health insurance, which businesses help pay for. The new study, scheduled to be published Monday as […]
This issue brief describes five things to know about Medicare site-neutral payment reforms for outpatient services. 1. Medicare often pays more for the same service when provided in a hospital outpatient department versus other settings 2. While Congress enacted legislation in 2015 to align Medicare payments across settings in certain circumstances, there is interest in […]
“Former HHS secretaries: Congress should adopt site-neutral payments for health care,” by Alex Azar and Kathleen G. Sebelius As a practicing oncologist, I wholeheartedly agree with the former HHS secretaries’ call to expand site-neutral payment policy. It is a commonsense reform, independent of one’s political leanings. Regardless of party, policymakers can agree that giving patients the […]
As two former secretaries of Health and Human Services, we are all too familiar with the struggle of finding narrow openings for bipartisanship. Despite our different approaches, we believe that addressing health care costs is a truly bipartisan issue. To be serious about creating access for people to the best possible care, that care must […]
Tim Ebel’s visit with an ear, nose and throat specialist at an Ohio clinic last October came to $348. At the same time, he got a second bill for $645. The hospital system that owns the Avon, Ohio, clinic had charged him separately for use of the office where he met his physician. It is […]
As if to prove that every rule has an exception, the usually dysfunctional Republican-majority House of Representatives has at least one sensible piece of bipartisan legislation on its record: In December it passed a health-care measure called the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act on a 320-71 vote. Also contrary to Congress’s occasional practice, the bill’s name […]