 No excuse for lack of health care transparency By Jonathan Small
We all know someone who has been price-gouged with a surprise medical bill.
Carolyn Coburn, widow of former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, recently made headlines when she revealed one Tulsa hospital sought to charge her (and her insurer) $4,000 combined for a COVID-19 test.
“Nobody should charge $4,000 to stick a Q-Tip up someone’s nose,” Coburn told Forbes.
Similarly, state Sen. Adam Pugh recalled how the bill for his child’s birth was abruptly cut in half once the hospital learned he was paying out of pocket, rather than through a third-party insurer. The cost of the delivery was the same regardless of payor, so why was the price discrepancy so great?
The answer is that health care, unlike nearly all other professions, operates with no price transparency, and providers are free to make up numbers as they go, leading to wildly inflated bills.
That’s one reason research indicates over 50 percent of U.S. bankruptcies are tied to medical debt.
Fortunately, there is a way to change that dynamic in Oklahoma by empowering consumers.
Read more »by Jamison Faught - March 09, 2021 at 11:10AM |
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Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Small: No excuse for lack of health care transparency
