Medical Costs
Giving Up on Red Tape, Doctors Turn to Cash-Based Model
By Alexa Ura, The Texas Tribune. For 12 hours a day, the waiting room at Dr. Gustavo Villarreal’s family practice is often packed with patients, people who will pay a flat $50 fee for the… Read More
Victim: “Get an Attorney before ER Overcharges Bankrupt You”
By Jane Mundy, Lawyers and Settlements.com. Last July Rothanie went to the ER, doubled over in pain. She had an appendectomy and spent a total of two days in the hospital. Rothanie is now facing...
The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
By Marshall Allen for ProPublica. ProPublica has been researching why the U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world. One answer, broadly, is waste — some of it buried in practices that the...
Cancer experts demand action on reducing high-cost drugs
Source: Mayo Clinic News Network . A group of 118 of the nation’s leading cancer experts have drafted a prescription for reducing the high cost of cancer drugs and voiced support for a patient-based… Read More
After Surgery, Surprise $117,000 Medical Bill From Doctor He Didn’t Know
By Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times. Before his three-hour neck surgery for herniated disks in December, Peter Drier, 37, signed a pile of consent forms. Mr. Drier was prepared when the bills started arriving. He...
The RUC Is Bad Medicine; It Has to Go
By Brian Klepper, PhD. RUC Is a Deep Root of Our Healthcare Crisis. “One of the biggest mistakes we made…is that we took the RUC…back in 1992 and gave it to the AMA…It’s incredibly political,… Read More
Why Hospitals Charge So Much For An Asprin
By Unagidon – Commonweal Magazine. The reason that hospitals charge so much for an aspirin is a rather simple one, and if I tell you why they do it might help me make my point...
Bigger Hospitals Mean Higher Prices, Not Better Care
By Shannon Brownlee and Vikas Saini – Bloomberg News. Power in hospitals is shifting from doctors to administrators. Hospitals are busily merging with other hospitals and buying up groups of doctors. They claim that size...
Open heart surgery: $428,903
CNN iReport. Elise Hay’s daughter, Nora, was born with heart problems and needed surgery when she was four days old. After the two-week hospital stay, surgery, tests, and medications, the cost was nearly half a...