I don't want to turn this topic into an arguement or fight.

Someone mentioned before that HC has always been a 'the insurance will take care of it" idea.

It's time that the mystery is taken out of insurance/hospital/healthcare costs.

For years we have taken that indusstry for granted and now, more than ever, we need to push back the curtain and really pay attention to the guy pulling the levers and telling us the Great and Powerful Oz is on the up and up.

Medicine isn't an exact science, no matter what the TV says.

As a matter of fact, most of those shows really suck.

I love House.........where else can a drug addicted, crippled doctor buck the system and keep his job?

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Another GIANT change to the HC system is going to happen in 2013.

The ICD codes are going to be revised and the 10th edition will be put into effect and that is going to change the way hospitals collect their money.

The ICD codes are broken into two 'books'. One deals with illnesses and the other deals with operations/procedures.

The procedural revisions are going to be so detailed and in depth, that MCs are going to lose money because the docs are into healing, not keeping books.

An example of this?

A knee surgery? You have to code the 'approach'. Is it an incision or will they use a scope? What kind of surgery? A ligament repair, excision of a meniscus?
is it an exploratory surgery?

Every part of that surgery has a code attached to it and that code equals money - for the costs associated with that procedure.

Plus you have room, anesthesia, personnel, materials and surgeon charges.

It's a complex formula and most of the time, doc doesn't know what the eff he is going to find once they get in.

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The HC system is a frustrating system that for years has been shrouded in mystery and we need to take that out of the equation and make it more 'transparent'. There no real way to cost out a hospital stay.

LH, the idea of a cost guide on the wall of a doc's office is one way of doing business, but I think most of us would not even bother to go thru with a surgery IF WE KNEW THE COSTS.

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One of the saddest stories about HC was one my mom told me about a woman in a pharmacy trying to bargain with the clerk for some prescriptions drugs.

She could not afford the whole bottle, so she tried to buy a few pills until her check (SS, maybe?) came in.

THAT is a story that has bothered me for years.

Imagine that.

A country so powerful and rich, that we have reduced our citizen's to try and barter for their healthcare.

One thing I do advocate is for EVERYONE to pay attention to HC costs and their insurance coverage from now on.

Things are going to get tougher from here on out when it comes to costs and the stupid HCI that out benevolent guvmint has foisted upon us.

Knowledge is power-and that is the only way we will be able to afford HC in the future. We have to know what is going on behind the scenes.