Healthcare providers need to be held accountable to their customers for their pricing. There needs to be a published list of what every provider charges for every service. This list needs to be as readily accessible as a menu board at a fast food restaurant. X-rays cost so much per unit if film used. Aspirin costs so much money per pill. Part of this policy should include that each patient is provided with an itemized invoice and each item on that invoice must match with a service on the “menu.”
In addition, hospitals should not be able to charge for basic things such as a mother holding her newborn skin-to-skin after the delivery.
If the healthcare industry were required to make their prices public and transparent the cost of healthcare would decrease.
There should be baseline costs for procedures, tests, surgeries, ect in all areas. Depending on the specialty area, specific education, years of clinical experience, supplies/equipment /medications needed to complete what is being done, ect could increase the baseline cost of what is needed in a scaffolded way but also has a cap for the most that can be charged. However, hospitals should not be able to charge extra fees to use their facility for those procedures and charge for supplies, equipment used, medications needed, etc. It’s double dipping and causes many Americans to not get needed services due to the great expense.
Also, insurance companies should not be able to decline testing, procedures, labs, imaging, etc that has been ordered by a physician who is treating a patient because they have determined it isn’t necessary or they don’t want to pay for it. It isn’t for a physician who has only read a medical history and/or has never treated the patient, laid hands and eyes on the patient or assessed the patient directly to decide what the treating clinician has ordered is not the correct way to proceed in their care.
this is an amazing policy, and a no-brainer. especially prevalent given the killing of the united healthcare ceo. everyone is fed up with surprise healthcare costs, and the obvious solution is price transparency