How is a physician supposed to know which medicine is most affordable under which insurance plan?
Fortunately, there are tools coming into use designed to help clinicians figure out patient-specific costs of any medication they prescribe. The tools (jargon alert!) are called RTBTs, for real-time benefit tools.
You wake up in the post-operative recovery area, still groggy, the full effects of the procedure obscured by an anesthetic haze. You begin to ponder several questions: Was the surgery a success? Did the surgeon find anything unexpected? How quickly will the procedure make you feel better?
There’s another question you might ask yourself. A few weeks from now, is anyone involved in your care going to send you a surprise bill?
Could ACOs be costing us money?
My visit to this well-intentioned dermatologist illustrates one of the flaws of this idea of consumer empowerment.
Here is an awful thing about high deductible health plans: They delay breast cancer diagnosis and get in the way of proper breast cancer care.
The problem with American healthcare is not the existence of greed.
The US is rapidly becoming a high out-of-pocket healthcare system, often with disastrous results.
American healthcare is ridiculously expensive.
Are you one of the many Americans facing potentially high healthcare costs? If you have a high deductible health plan, or even a medium deductible one; if you are expected to fork over substantial copays for medical care—I’ve got good news for you. There are potentially a lot of healthcare bargains out there, if you’re […]
Brand-name chemotherapy is often incredibly expensive, in excess of $100,000 per patient. Sometimes there are excellent generic alternatives, but many oncologists are hesitant to prescribe generics because such prescriptions cost them money. For many medicines, you see, oncologists receive a 6% markup, meaning when they infuse a patient with a $10,000 monthly course of chemotherapy, […]