patrick.net

theres probably a law already protecting them from such.

FortWayneIndiana says

theres probably a law already protecting them from such.

Then add in the federal govt for conspiracy to defraud tax payers.

Medical is what 18% of our economy? How much of that is paid for by taxpayers? How much more of that is technically paid from private pockets via regulatory mandate? How many people are getting rich off this fleecing?

Its choosing and creating billionaires by govt mandate. Millionaires by the bucket are a side product: doctors, administrators, corporate executives and an army of salespeople are all paid off court jester millionaires to support the real fleecing at the top.

I’m not sure that you could always agree to pay medical bills before treatment is given. Plenty of people aren’t conscious or otherwise able to do paperwork when they are brought in for care. But most of them are, so if an exception was carved out for emergency patients, that would change the game completely. Hospitals would be required to get patient consent for billing just like the auto shop or car dealership has to get your signature for approximate cost of repair.

Quigley says

aren’t conscious or otherwise able to do paperwork

Yes, therefore point number two:

All emergency bills must be limited to federally regulated prices.

So the two points are:

1. all non-emergency bills must be presented and signed in advance of treatment
2. all emergency bills must be limited to federally regulated prices

Quigley says

Hospitals would be required to get patient consent for billing just like the auto shop or car dealership has to get your signature for approximate cost of repair.

It doesn't really work with auto repair either: yes, you can get an approximate estimate but what happens when they tear it down snd find more problems is you are faced with choice to either pay more for additional parts/labor or, if you think the problem is bogus, pay for tear down and reassembly and return to the square one. Now imagine the same approach with, say, surgery: you go in for an appendectomy and they find a hernia along the way (real situation as happened to one of my relatives). What is the surgeon to do: finish the appendectomy w/o touching the hernia, saw the patient up, wake him up and ask whether he wants the hernia fixed too? That would be as stupid as, say, not changing a "sweating" rear main seal while you're "in there" replacing the clutch.

But based on a clear value established for hernia surgery by all the people that didn't happen to, they couldn't stick you with a 100k bill

Iranian_Oil_Burse says

What is the surgeon to do: finish the appendectomy w/o touching the hernia, saw the patient up, wake him up and ask whether he wants the hernia fixed too?

That's not really a dilemma at all. If it's an emergency, it should be fixed and the price should be very tightly regulated because there is no possibility of a real market in emergencies.

If it's not an emergency, then it really is optional and the patient should either have been presented with this optional bill in advance and asked to accept or decline with specific prices for certain additional procedures, or not done at all.

But in no case should anyone ever be surprised with non-emergency bills.