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posted by martyb on Tuesday June 16 2020, @04:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the first-world-health-care? dept.

COVID-19 hospitalizations could mean significant out-of-pocket medical costs for many Americans:

For their study, the researchers analyzed out-of-pocket costs for pneumonia and other upper respiratory illness hospitalizations from January 2016 through August 2019 as a potential indicator of likely COVID-19 costs. The researchers found that these out-of-pocket costs were particularly high for so-called consumer-directed health plans -- which typically feature lower premiums, compared to standard plans, but higher deductibles that can be paid via tax-advantaged health savings accounts.

[...] Many big-name health insurers have voluntarily waived out-of-pocket cost sharing for COVID-19 treatment. However, employer-sponsored "self-insured" health insurance plans are not required to adhere to such waivers. Thus, tens of millions of Americans have high-deductible insurance plans that, in cases of COVID-19 hospitalization, may expose them to relatively high out-of-pocket costs.

[...] To get a sense of the likely cost burden on patients hospitalized for COVID-19, Eisenberg and colleagues examined de-identified insurance claims for 34,395 unique hospitalizations from January 2016 through August 2019. They looked at out-of-pocket costs incurred by people who had been hospitalized during the 2016-2019 study period with pneumonia, acute bronchitis, lower respiratory infections, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. (Claims data on actual COVID-19 cases were not available in the database at the time of the study.) The cases examined did not include those for people ages 65 and over, who are normally covered by Medicare. The out-of-pocket costs included deductible payments, copayments, and coinsurance payments.

The researchers found that average out-of-pocket spending for the 2016-2019 study period for these respiratory hospitalizations was $1,961 for patients with consumer-directed plans versus $1,653 for patients in traditional, usually smaller-deductible plans.

The out-of-pocket cost gap was lowest for older patients age 56 to 64, and greatest -- $2,237 vs. $1,685 -- for patients 21 and younger. The analysis was not designed to examine why the cost gap varied inversely with patient age, but one possible explanation proposed by the researchers was that, since younger patients are healthier on average, their hospitalizations may reflect more serious and thus more costly illness.

Journal Reference: Matthew D. Eisenberg, Colleen L. Barry, Cameron Schilling, Alene Kennedy-Hendricks. Financial Risk for COVID-19-like Respi- ratory Hospitalizations in Consumer-Directed Health Plans, American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.05.008


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:56PM (14 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:56PM (#1008867)

    On top of that.

    Here is my story.

    "I have a headache can you hand me my purse"
    "oh sure" hands over purse
    reaches in and pulls out a bottle of generic asprin
    nurse scribbles on bit of paper
    2 months later
    400 dollar bill for handing my mom her purse.

    One thing we can do is itemize all bills and put them on the internet. Full transparency. Only one person wants that apparently in our government because the AHCA is perfect and needs no changes.

    Check your bills. Hospitals put extra shit on there all the time. Also never take the helicopter. The hospitals no longer own them. Never take the ambulance if you can help it. Some bright sparks use it as a taxi service so they have to have extras laying around to backup. Which costs lots of extra money.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @10:08PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @10:08PM (#1008874)

    Check your bills. Hospitals put extra shit on there all the time.

    They do. I was admitted to the hospital a number of years ago when a doctor (wrongly) thought I might have MRSA [wikipedia.org]. I spent three days getting unnecessary IV antibiotics before the tests came back and, surprise, surprise, no MRSA.

    When I saw the list of charges, I was surprised to find that not only was I in two different beds at the same time, but also I found out that I'd had a pap smear [mayoclinic.org]. Which is quite a trick, since being male, I don't have a cervix.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 17 2020, @01:49AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 17 2020, @01:49AM (#1008973) Journal

      Which is quite a trick, since being male, I don't have a cervix.

      Don't you want one? It can be arranged for the right money (grin)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @10:10PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @10:10PM (#1008875)

    One thing we can do is itemize all bills and put them on the internet. Full transparency. Only one person wants that apparently in our government because the AHCA is perfect and needs no changes.

    Who said that? I've never heard *anyone* (except you, just now) say anything even close to that.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday June 17 2020, @12:02AM (7 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @12:02AM (#1008935)

    Here is my story: A couple of years ago I got a call from Mrs PartTimeZombie telling me she'd fallen and broken her ankle.

    By the time I got home the ambulance was there and she was admitted to hospital.

    6 weeks and two operations later, I was still complaining about having to pay $4 an hour for parking to visit her.

    That was my total "out of pocket" and that is how the entire civised world does healthcare, because it is cheaper and works better for everyone except insurance companies.

    I'm sorry you have such dishonest system. Maybe you should consider emigration.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @12:10AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @12:10AM (#1008937)

      Seems strange to ignore that you have paid taxes over the years for this service.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday June 17 2020, @01:17AM (1 child)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday June 17 2020, @01:17AM (#1008959)

        Who is ignoring it? That is entirely my point.

        I don't have to worry about losing my house because of an accident. You do.

        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @01:36AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @01:36AM (#1008965)

          No I dont. People who gave all their money to insurance companies and live in houses they cant afford do.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:29PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:29PM (#1009126)

        And presumably you are not?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @04:53AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @04:53AM (#1009030)

      Like most of the 'civilized world' which you mention require you to have specialized skills, a masters degree, or a lot of money in order to give you a working or resident visa. Furthermore, many explicitly state you will have to pay for any medical care you recieve while there (the on-the ground realities may or may not be in line with that.) I don't remember exactly which countries I got that information from, but it was among norway, denmark, belgium, netherlands and a few other of the more prominent european countries.

      Lots of other places have far lower scrutiny of immigrants, but also have fewer opportuntiies, more corruption, and questionable or limited first world medical care available.

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:23AM (1 child)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday June 17 2020, @09:23AM (#1009063) Homepage
        Marry a local. Sheesh, is your personality so terrible you don't think you can find anyone in the whole of the EU?
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @12:24PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @12:24PM (#1009082)

          I'm sure it won't be a problem when I tell her I just want to get married so the state will pay for my herpes meds.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @05:11AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @05:11AM (#1009036)

    Also never take the helicopter. The hospitals no longer own them. Never take the ambulance if you can help it.

    I'll remember that for the next time I get asked.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:33PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:33PM (#1009129)

      Don't forget to refuse non-generic drugs and bring your own gauze (much cheaper). Also, you should put out a tender and conduct interviews. And for God's sake, take your bleach!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:54PM (#1009264)

    So... it's a little more complicated than that.

    Your wife engaged the nurse. The nurse did an assessment of her, determined she was lucid and rational. Nurse probably looked at her skin tone and color, absence of sweat, mental attitude (was not screaming in pain nor experienced it). If nurse was competent she probably asked Mom to describe headache to ensure it wasn't migraine or burst aneurysm, and probably observed and or asked if there was any other symptoms with that. Mom decided to self medicate. Nurse agreed that this was acceptable (would not stop that in any event), but it does likely stop nurse from prescribing anything else at that time (assuming this was an advance practice nurse who can prescribe). Nurse may have also decided that no prescription from the nurse was warranted but the patient can self medicate so you're not charged another $25 for two whatever's. (Pills cost $.25, pharmacist who stocks it $5, nurse salary $3.75, lights and overhead $1.00. $15.00 because every person tries to make darn sure you are getting 50 mg of aspiring and not 30 mg codeine and liability insurance for when the nurse was wrong and you just died of OD and sue.)

    Let's take it from a different profession point of view. You call over a plumber and describe that the pipe underneath your sink is leaking. Plumber looks at it and can see that it is indeed a small leak. You ask plumber to hand you a wrench. Plumber does so and you tighten the joint. Have you not still engaged the time and professional skill of that plumber even though you decided to fix it yourself?