Several years ago I got two opinions for back pain from rowing. First guy was a cash pay clinic. He spent an hour with me, showed me how to fix my rowing form to stop doing damage, and told me that imaging was unnecessary. I took his advice and was pain free within a month.
Second guy was through insurance at a big conglomerate. He spent 5 minutes with me, ordered a CT and MRI, and recommended either PT or a back brace. But hey, it would have been ‘covered’. Fun intro to healthcare economics.
To what extend do HDHP with HSAs already help here? Not for Medicare, of course. But a someone with an HDHP I do find I’m considering cost-benefit tradeoffs. The challenge as I see it is that so few of us are on these plans that pricing is still not transparent so making cost-benefit decisions is still hard
FYI, Stark Law has an exception for bracing, orthotics, and prosthetics. But all, DOJ has a zero enforcement policy right now. Stark Law violations are everywhere in CMS data. Entirely transparent. DM for a report.
Several years ago I got two opinions for back pain from rowing. First guy was a cash pay clinic. He spent an hour with me, showed me how to fix my rowing form to stop doing damage, and told me that imaging was unnecessary. I took his advice and was pain free within a month.
Second guy was through insurance at a big conglomerate. He spent 5 minutes with me, ordered a CT and MRI, and recommended either PT or a back brace. But hey, it would have been ‘covered’. Fun intro to healthcare economics.
Yes! Exactly this.
To what extend do HDHP with HSAs already help here? Not for Medicare, of course. But a someone with an HDHP I do find I’m considering cost-benefit tradeoffs. The challenge as I see it is that so few of us are on these plans that pricing is still not transparent so making cost-benefit decisions is still hard
FYI, Stark Law has an exception for bracing, orthotics, and prosthetics. But all, DOJ has a zero enforcement policy right now. Stark Law violations are everywhere in CMS data. Entirely transparent. DM for a report.