Anytime Susannah Fox tweets “I am fascinated by…,” I stop what I’m doing and click. Today it’s this: “I am fascinated by this healthcare costs blog: healthcaresavvy.wbur.org Thanks @agropper @WBUR @stephenjdowns.”
It’s on the site of WBUR, Boston’s public radio station, but the posts are from citizens: “We are a community of patients who are starting to shop for health care…”
Don’t be put off by the top post, which is an obscure TurboTax note – read the other personal stories. Short, fascinating, real-world stories.
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the one that got me was “my pcp told me to go to the ER for a non-emergency procedure”…Um, WHAT??? (*facepalm)
That’s right. And before I went to the ER, I stopped at the “Day Surgery Center” because I know that some hospitals have walk-in clinics. This particular hospital does not do walk-ins for the minor procedure I had.
Here’s the post: http://healthcaresavvy.wbur.org/2011/08/how-to-post-the-specific-costs-and-services/
As you can see from the comments, the WBUR reporter is encouraging me to post the itemized info when I have it.
So…perhaps you misunderstood me. If I understand correctly, you (a medical doctor and healthcare consultant) took the advice of your PCP (another medical doctor) and went to the ER for a non-emergent, elective procedure? Was there a reason why you took that route rather than scheduling the procedure at a more appropriate setting?
You understand correctly.
As I explained, the procedure had to be done that day. Another criterion was that my PCP had to have access to the culture result. If I had gone to a hospital that I know has a walk-in clinic, even closer to my home, the PCP would not have gotten the results without jumping through hoops.
So, yes, because I’m a doctor and healthcare consultant and I have my doctor’s cell phone number, I have the ability to coordinate care better than most. Even so, it takes MA leadership to get health care costs to 17% of the GDP.
I have always wanted to create a website called: My EOB (or something like that) for people to share their medical cost story and their EOBs. I travel often to Colorado from CA for my surgeries. There are some of the top ortho Drs in the world where a lot of top Althletes go to get fixed. Last week I met a Norwegian Discus player who was 6′ 11″ and big. (another story) My regular office visit there runs $65 and in Ca for a standard fare Dr the same cost can run anywhere from $150 to $300. And, I can email these Drs, get medical records vis email, and yes. the most important thing….care! It’s nuts. I had an MRI done there (one of the highest rate Tesla machines) which cost about 1500. At Stanford the same thing cost me $6000. I blew my lid at that, and with a doctor that totally blew me off and said the only hope I had to save my bone was a medieval procedure with no quantification of likelihood of success. (Can you tell I am rubbed the wrong way).
@alexandra Could you use the WBUR site to do what you would like to do? Their search and indexing still leaves a lot to be desired but that’s not hard to fix. What else should they be doing?
Should SPM try to make a formal suggestion to improve the WBUR site.