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taeyoungwoo OP t1_izg1m6z wrote

Reply to comment by FitzwilliamTDarcy in U.S. hospitals are required to publish their prices for medical procedures now, so my friends and I collected around 15 million prices from 143 hospitals in Massachusetts and created a search engine where anyone can see how much they may be charged. Let me know what you think! by taeyoungwoo

These are for specific procedures, but hopefully one day we can calculate the all-in-one price!

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FitzwilliamTDarcy t1_izj5kdw wrote

IME this is the rub, especially when it comes to insurance coverage. You can jump through all sorts of hoops to ensure that "the procedure" is covered by your insurance, but then magically the anesthesiologist isn't. At all. And is $25,000 or something ludicrous.

Couple years ago my wife and I held up a fully staffed OR because literally 5 minutes before going in for surgery they put a form in front of us, basically a release, saying that certain aspects *may* not be covered by insurance (including anesthesia/anesthesiologist - they actually called that out), and that we were personally accepting/guaranteeing responsibility for same. This was despite having spent weeks chasing down people at the hospital and our insurance company saying that everything was covered.

So we just refused to sign despite them pressuring us. Magically, 20 minutes later we were cleared for surgery without having to sign the fucking form. Fuck that. Fuck them.

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