There’s nothing more frustrating than going to the doctor, being told you’ll owe nothing or have no co-pay for a visit, then having a hefty medical bill arrive in your mail a few weeks or months later. Why is it that we know the price we’re paying for every other service before we buy it except for American healthcare?
I’m proposing a site that functions like Yelp but for medical bills. After a visit, you share what doctor you saw, what insurance you have, what treatment you had, and then what you ended up paying out of pocket. You’re able to see other people’s experiences with doctors and what they paid before you have a visit, and you can pay it forward by helping others estimate their medical bills ahead of time as well.
What do you think?
Is this something you’d find value in?
I’d be interested to see if this could turn into more of a marketplace: where people are able to sort, purchase, and compare healthcare from a price point standpoint. I think that could drastically reduce prices. In a market economy like ours, I’m surprised that healthcare runs contrary to market principles.
I’d find value in it, but the implementation may be trickier than anticipated. Payment for medical services is quite variable, with differences arising not just between insurance plans, but also between time of year, billing codes, etc. That is to say, someone who visits Doctor A for treatment B in June may have a different bill than that same person, doctor, and treatment in December of a year. Payment forecasting is notoriously complex, and not easily tracked or determined, unfortunately.
This is a good point. It’s also quite challenging for doctors to have an idea how much a patient will pay out of pocket because it depends on insurance, billing codes, and much more. It’s very challenging to forecast, and oftentimes, doctors aren’t the ones negotiating and setting rates either,
Interesting point. I didn’t know this. That’s so frustrating. Cost should be based on treatment and nothing else.
Interesting idea. I’d be interested in something like this. I wonder if you’ll run into some trouble coordinating between health insurance and doctors, with both putting more of the burden of data collection and paying on the other…
Agreed. I see the major challenge here to be integrating with multiple systems, some of which are closed for privacy/regulatory reasons… Alternatively, you’re going on what people report their charges to be, and people aren’t entirely reliable, especially when it comes to telling the truth about health habits (e.g., the are you a smoker? question at doctor’s visits)
^ This is exactly right. We don’t often have visibility into insurance plans and why certain patients have certain bills vs others because of privacy reasons/HIPAA. The best we can often do is provide a billing code ahead of time so patients can provide to their insurance to understand out of pocket costs at that point. Beyond that, it goes by negotiated agreements with insurance providers, in-network vs out-of-network, and where the individual is in meeting their deductible, oftentimes. It’s very complex.
Danielstevens,
This has often been my experience, but I do not understand why I need to have the billing code and the office support staff cannot call my insurance for me to check? Navigating that conversation with insurance is very complex, and I would much prefer if someone with more subject-matter knowledge, like someone from the doctor’s office, were able to help with that conversation.
Sincerely,
Weston