Doctor stops accepting insurance, lowers prices.

[bannination]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/do ... 05203.html

I hope this becomes a thing. Just posting prices up front would be a huge boon.

[Dryer Vent]

On April 1, Ciampi lowered his prices and posted the costs online. For example, an office visit in which patients discuss "one issue of moderate complexity or 2-3 simple issues" costs $75. When Ciampi accepted insurance, the visit would run $160, according to the Bangor Daily News.

This guy is a con artist. His new low rate is $75??? My family doc charges $65 and will sit with you as long as he needs to. And, it's paid for 80% by insurance. Why would I go pay $10 more for a visit that I have to pay the full load for?

[Leo Lyons]

Different rates in different states.

"When Ciampi accepted insurance, the visit would run $160, according to the Bangor Daily News." Why the $85 difference I wonder?
That's why insurance costs are ridiculous.

[Dryer Vent]

At $160, he was ripping somebody off, probably Medicaid or Medicare. Now, they caught up with him. It would be curious to see if there are any complaints filed against him for either fraud or malpractice.

OMG, Leo...do you live in Kingman? My son lived in Kingman about six years ago. We visited him while he was there. He's in Phoenix now.

[Leo Lyons]

OMG, Leo...do you live in Kingman? My son lived in Kingman about six years ago. We visited him while he was there. He's in Phoenix now.

Yes, a few miles out of town on Hualapai Mtn. Rd.

[Dryer Vent]

Our kid lived in town. He worked for the public defender's office and represented meth dealers for two years. It was called paying his dues.

[bannination]

On April 1, Ciampi lowered his prices and posted the costs online. For example, an office visit in which patients discuss "one issue of moderate complexity or 2-3 simple issues" costs $75. When Ciampi accepted insurance, the visit would run $160, according to the Bangor Daily News.

This guy is a con artist. His new low rate is $75??? My family doc charges $65 and will sit with you as long as he needs to. And, it's paid for 80% by insurance. Why would I go pay $10 more for a visit that I have to pay the full load for?

Must be location. I don't know of anything here that cheap.

[rstrong]

"When Ciampi accepted insurance, the visit would run $160, according to the Bangor Daily News." Why the $85 difference I wonder?

Back in 2008 when a public insurance option for the US was a real possibility, the Republican were spreading lies and paranoid fantasies about the Canadian system with a fire hose. An American citizen / Canadian resident wrote an interesting rebuttal to some of it.

...In Canada, doctors run their own private practices, just like they do in the US. The only difference is that every doctor deals with one insurer, instead of 150. And that insurer is the provincial government, which is accountable to the legislature and the voters if the quality of coverage is allowed to slide...

...they don’t have to charge higher fees to cover the salary of a full-time staffer to deal with over a hundred different insurers, all of whom are bent on denying care whenever possible....

...Second, they don’t have to spend several hours every day on the phone cajoling insurance company bean counters into doing the right thing by their patients. My doctor in California worked a 70-hour week: 35 hours seeing patients, and another 35 hours on the phone arguing with insurance companies....

...You don’t realize how much stress the American doctor-insurer fights put on the day-to-day quality of care until you see doctors who don’t operate under that stress...

Now do you see why taking the insurance companies out of the picture lowers the costs? It wouldn't work for surgery of any serious conditions. But for walk-in medical advice, it makes sense.