-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 08:11 PM 10/30/97 -0500, Dave Emery wrote:
On Thu, Oct 30, 1997 at 09:33:52AM -0700, Tim May wrote:
Turns out that Blue Cross and Blue Shield have negotiated, through enormous buying power, daily rates of about $700 a day. (These numbers come from my memory of a "60 Minutes" report a few years ago. Details and current figures may vary.)
My wife is a pathologist, and she tells me that some of the more aggressive HMOs get away with paying 15-20% of the posted "official" prices for procedures and tests. The difference between what insurance organizations pay and the nominal price is usually 2 to 3 to 1 for most things these days. And for many years Medicare has set defined prices for medical reimbursement that less than the gold plated bill amount as well.
The WSJ had an article about a guy who found out that his HMO had negotiated a payment rate which was less than his *copay* on the procedure so the insurance company paid nothing for his hospitalization at all. DCF -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNFnGrYVO4r4sgSPhAQEBHQQAuHnkSWEtcwJbmOZqiPImpB7pHy0nTcI4 N0XPTiir5XYYS12f8hmbA9EuN266R/8nKbE2LR5hm5VqQ2Tagimo7gKwrWpfKYtK OxNVLHuEOF0AiB8H15+J2JNUnLECR5N7rhcMDsDNkZfxYK8wxHAMrFBVeVNfhdqA UaW7pG8IQFA= =qFrU -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----