R
rickman
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Our screwed up tort law.
There's not much to that I can comment on. What isn't screwed up? But
the tort law works. You may not like some of the consequences, but it
is a lot better than no laws at all.
Was there something in particular you wanted to comment on? Or do you
just prefer to complain while expressing no particular point?
That's why I say: Open the chargemaster to the public. Just like the
auto parts store shows its prices to the public before they buy (it's
the law), not after they have installed the parts and can't return them.
Because hospitals do the latter, you get treated and _then_ they tell
you what it costs.
I don't know what a "chargemaster" is. If you mean the price books,
then I think they should open all columns. The parts store doesn't do
that. They have the retail prices shown. Commercial customers get much
better pricing.
No, I happen to work in the medical device space and know this stuff. Do
you?
Oh, you have to resort to playing that card eh? I thought that was John
Larkin's favorite card.
Who do you think ends up paying the $100k plus malpractice premium for a
cardiologist? Why do you think a doc who does simple diagnoses that
could be done with a $25k ultrasound system buys the $120k system? He
told me: "If I get dragged into court I can tell that I use the best
system on the patient that money can buy".
What's wrong with having liability insurance. Don't you have it too?
It costs a lot because the liability of being a doctor is very high.
When they screw up it is a big deal to their patients.
As to why doctors make the decisions they do isn't a function of tort
law. It is a result of the huge stakes of their making a mistake.
The real problem is not tort law, it is medical practice. Why can the
doctor charge whatever he wants for an ultrasound? Once the system
covers everyone under medical insurance, the reimbursements will be
fixed by the insurance companies. Doctors won't be able to run labs,
clinics and hospitals as profit centers for their own personal benefit.
They will have to compete in the market or go out of business. Why do
you think medical school enrollment is so limited? Because there just
isn't a way to train more doctors? No, to prevent an over supply of
doctors from lowering the prices. Doctors run nearly all aspects of
medicine including who gets to be a doctor and when they are no longer
allowed to be a doctor. What other occupation is self regulated like
that? In this case it is an entire industry with not enough overview.
But by then it's too late. Perfectly good health plans like ours will
have death-spiraled, and so on. Then we'll get a single payer socialixed
system because there won't be any other way out of the mess. And maybe
that's the real purpose behind all this?
What health plan is that? Why will Obamacare affect your plan and make
it implode?
I, for one, will be very happy with socialized medicine. I think it is
very overdue. Why are you afraid of it? I guess it is just the fact
that you think you are well taken care of by the current system. Have
you looked into the lifetime cap on your policy? Most of them have it.
That is the part that puts you into bankruptcy when you get cancer or
a hospital infection. No one ever went bankrupt with socialize
medicine, but people don't realize this until it happens. Kinda like a
roulette wheel. Is it time for your number to come up?