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.

The hospital’s operator says it plans to keep the Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center open, but that it needs to raise more funds to ensure its viability
Revived ‘Riding the Circuit’ program brings real-world clarity on law, life to students
From tips for your gardening and a documentary about book bans to the Greenes of Rhode Island and a book club that meets at a local cat café, here’s what’s happening at the Tiverton Public Library this month
Plus: the African American Museum of Rhode Island opens this weekend and Andrew Bird plays with the RI Philharmonic
Barrington businessman points to bridge failures and payroll woes as proof Rhode Island needs a reset, entering the race as an independent
Says coastal regulators violated their own rules when they approved scaled-down scallop farm