Medical Bills Often Come with Sticker Shock but Insurance Could be Reinvented to Provide Costs Upfront

The price of the doctor’s visit you calculated online might not reflect what you’ll be billed.
The price of the doctor’s visit you calculated online might not reflect what you’ll be billed.
chormail/Envato
Share
The price of the doctor’s visit you calculated online might not reflect what you’ll be billed.
The price of the doctor’s visit you calculated online might not reflect what you’ll be billed.
chormail/Envato
Medical Bills Often Come with Sticker Shock but Insurance Could be Reinvented to Provide Costs Upfront
Copy

You have scheduled an appointment with a health care provider, but no matter how hard you try, no one seems to be able to reliably tell you how much that visit will cost you. Will you have to pay US$20, $1,000 – or even more?

Patients are increasingly on the hook for health care costs through deductibles, co-pays and other fees. As a result, patients are demanding credible cost information before appointments to choose where they seek care and control their budget.

Yet, in spite of recent legislation and regulations, upfront information on patient out-of-pocket costs is still difficult to obtain from both health care providers and insurers.

Read the full article on The Conversation.

At Ashawaug Farm in Hopkinton, Narragansett growers are preserving heritage crops while navigating cuts to federal programs that helped small and tribal producers
A fiscal watchdog group recommends tightening oversight of education spending as the state continues to struggle with improving educational outcomes
A new nonprofit owner has raised nearly half of its initial renovation budget and says more than 100 prospective tenants have expressed interest
The pop star, who owns a home in Westerly, made the surprise donation on Thursday
A date with defending champion Argentina doesn’t scare the region’s sizable Cabo Verdean population, whose soccer team has already made history
Under President Trump, some members of the southeastern Massachusetts Portuguese community have conflicting views on the economy, politics and the state of the “American Dream”