Gavin Allan
Well-Known Member
Hugh, I am a bureacrat too, with an MPA. Maybe we could get together and figure out how to become middlemen. :banana:
Took my wife to the ER last week because the Urgent Care was closed and she needed a strep test. I wasn't happy to pay the $250 copay but I didn't think it was unfair either. $250 for a trip to the ER is a bargain, IMO. My father in law, also a physician, could not diagnose without the test so he sent us somewhere that had the tools to do so. It takes specialized knowledge and very expensive tools to do something as simple as diagnosing strep. We could expect that it just be given to us because of it's mere existence or we could recognize that physicians spent a lot of time and personal capital to gain that knowledge and the hospital spends a ton of money to operate and offer that diagnosis to us. Within a half hour of leaving the hospital, we got a phone call to say that it did not show up as strep but would find out for sure when the culture came back. How expensive do you think it was to do a culture sample that had to be transported from our small town hospital?
We paid $9 for thirty amoxicillin.
In the UK, they'd just give you the penicillin for a 2-pound copay and send you on your way. That is, of course if you met the observable signs of strep. If not, gargle with salt water and come back in a week if not better. And that's how you keep costs down.
You would trade lower costs for actual care?
Assuming they have part or whole ownership in lab, xray, and other ancillary services, they get paid for charging the patients more.
some patients actually enjoyed being in the hospital
I'm not a fan of private practice in the 21st century. There's no way a single physician can provide comprehensive care without getting into to trouble with insurance companies with conflict of interest issues.
oh how I have missed some of you. (25% of you)
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