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Blog Entry 3 of 8 HealthCare Confidential - An Insider's Guide to the Health Care Game.
Health Care Confidential provides an insider's unique perspective and commentary on one of the most visible and important issues in Colorado (and the country) today - the health care and health insurance industries. Over 25 years of professional insider knowledge and experience on how the "Health Care Game" works will be featured here. In summary, I have advanced degrees in Business Administration and Computer Information Systems and specialize in health care systems and consulting. I've worked on all sides (technical, business, provider) of private and governmment health care and health insurance systems. The ignorance of and assumptions made by mainstream media reporting (as well as other high-profile local and national spokespersons) regarding our health care and health insurance industries are astounding. Superficial reporting by people with no experience in the industry propogates the misinformation. At other times, the information is presented in a manner that makes makes most people want to faint from boredom and complexity. Want to know what happens to your insurance claim after you've seen your doctor? Want to know why "the rising cost of health care" is not a given fact, but is in fact a lie? Want to know all the ways doctors and hospitals cheat insurance companies? Want to know why all discussions about health care reform tend to concentrate on the insurance-side of the health care equation? HealthCare Confidential is the place to find out.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~HealthCareConfidential

Urgent Care Center ...still no prices!
Contributed by: Dave Schallert   on 11/3/2007

I noticed an almost full-page news article in the Parker Chronicle dated 10/26/07.

It was a detailed story about the new Urgent Care and Illness Center that opened 9/29/07 in Parker.

Amidst pictures of the smiling primary physicians and all the quotes and all the Center's capabilities, something was missing.

No prices. No mention ANYWHERE of how much the Center charges people for ANYTHING.

And as I've pointed out here before and will continue to point out...the problem here is that this clinic and its doctors are immune to price pressures and competition. To be sure, if you go there and have to pay for their services out-of-pocket (as opposed to having insurance pay) they will most CERTAINLY have their own prices set for the services you received. But it's the clinic setting the prices based on what the clinic believes their services are worth...not what the marketplace demands the prices be set at. And what they charge cash/out-of-pocket patients will most certainly be higher than their insurance reimbursements and higher than what they would be able to charge if they actually had to compete w/ other clinics and doctors for patients.

And so I can also assure you they will charge whatever they can get away with and whatever the insurance companies will pay them.

Wouldn't it be great if all of us could simply charge what WE believe our services were worth and get paid that much instead of having to compete and set prices based on our job performance and market competition?

It also would have been great if Chris Michlewicz (the Parker Chronicle reporter) had just asked them somewhere in the story "How much do you charge just for someone to see a doctor?"...along w/ a photo taken at that same moment showing the looks on the doctor(s)' face(s) as they tried not to blurt out "AS MUCH AS WE CAN!"


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Amanda Pacion
posted on 7/23/2008 @ 12:10:06 PM
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Yes, it is frustrating when it seems as if prices are not important in the advertising. Thankfully there is a big push in marketing to cater to the consumer in this area- people want choices and like to shop competetively even in the area of healthcare. I beleive you will start seeing prices advertised more on websites and ads. Also, you would be surprised by how many Urgent Care centers are accepting major insurances. You may also see such information listed on their websites. To search for an urgent care center in your area and view information such as incurances accepted and pricing, visit www.findurgentcare.com. It's a great tool to find the closest facility in your area.
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Submitted By: Robin Nolet
posted on 11/3/2007 @ 3:03:00 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Very interesting...I was wondering how that all worked over there. Sounds like you're better off with your own doc, or the emergency room. And, unfortunately, I have found that the reporters at the Chronicle have all seemed to have forgotten the basics of their craft: how, what, when, where, why and who-I ask it all the time after reading that paper!
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Dave Schallert

Parker , CO

Dave Schallert has posted 8 blog entries and 2 comments since joining on 7/12/2007. Dave Schallert 's average blog rating is 4.73.
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