Category: Health Costs
Cancer’s Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls
By Anna Gorman, Kaiser Health News Carol Marley wants everyone to know what a life-threatening cancer diagnosis looks like in America today. Yes, it’s the chemotherapy that leaves you weak and unable to walk across the room. Yes, it’s the…
A Netflix Model for Hepatitis C: One Price, Unlimited Meds
By Michael Ollove, Stateline Two states fighting an escalating hepatitis C crisis will soon pay a flat fee for unlimited drugs — Netflix style — to treat prisoners and low-income residents suffering from the deadly liver disease, with the goal…
Drug-Price Debate Targets Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Some insurers defend PBMs, arguing that blaming them for high drug prices is unfair when drug companies are free to set their prices as high as they want.
Bipartisan interest to curb surprise medical bills
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing optimism about attacking a problem that has affected 57 percent of American adults,
States May Have to Face Off Against Feds to Control Drug Prices
The federal government has zealously guarded its authority over drug pricing.
Hospital Charge for Fainting Spell: $4,700
Total Bill: $4,692 for all the hospital care, including a $2,961 ER admission fee, a $400 EKG, $348 for a chest X-ray, and nearly $1,000 for blood tests.
Analysis: Pulling Back Curtain On Hospital Prices Adds New Wrinkle In Cost Control
For years, these prices have been a tightly guarded industrial secret. When pressed to release them, hospitals have argued that they are proprietary information.
Support grows for action on drug prices
Spurred on by midterm election results that showed health care to be a deciding issue, lawmakers are pushing a bevy of new proposals and approaches.
Prices vary wildly from hospital to hospital
The price of a liter of basic saline solution ranged from $56 to $383, nearly seven times as much. A brain MRI with contrast ranged from $3,200 to $8,800.
Patients turn to GoFundMe to pay bills
Medical fundraisers now account for 1 in 3 of the website’s campaigns, and they bring in more money than any other GoFundMe category.
GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ In Health System Showing Up In Crowdfunding
“The system is terrible. It needs to be rethought and retooled. Politicians are failing us. Health care companies are failing us,” says CEO Rob Solomon.
Seven in 10 Americans say healthcare system in “crisis” or having “major problems
Seven in 10 or those polled said the healthcare system in “crisis” or having “major problems, in response to a new Gallup poll. The results are in line with what the poll has found since 1994.
Health reads of the week
Must-read health care stories of the week from Kaiser Health News’ Brianna Labuskes.
Health care industry spends $30B a year on advertising
Marketing drives more testing…more treatments. It’s a big part of why health care is so expensive… it’s the fancy, high-tech stuff things that get marketed.
How much will that operation cost?
Hospitals now must to post their prices online. But what is popping up on hospital websites is a dog’s breakfast of codes, abbreviations and dollar signs.