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To: Sr K who wrote (493354)	6/29/2012 12:45:57 AM
From: Brian Sullivan	Respond to of 793970

Have you ever seen waste, fraud, or abuse that increased cost to an insured or to the entire system? Sure in any government run system there is bound to be loads of waste fraud and abuse.

To: Sr K who wrote (493354)	6/29/2012 3:01:14 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	7 Recommendations Respond to of 793970

Too much testing is usually caused by fear of malpractice suits. Tort reform would have saved money, but was not included because the Trial Lawyers are a big Dem special interest group. Have you ever seen waste, fraud, or abuse that increased cost to an insured or to the entire system? The fraud in Medicare alone is estimated to be $100 billion a year. The government doesn't have any modern systems to catch it. Medicare is run on the honor system.

To: Sr K who wrote (493354)	6/29/2012 9:10:39 AM
From: skinowski	10 Recommendations Respond to of 793970

Recently, my wife had a colonoscopy. It was done in an outpatient surgery department of a hospital. The final bill was over $8000. Since her insurance had "negotiated rates", the hospital accepted a payment of about $1000. If she would have no insurance, or had no negotiated rates, they would probably agree to take no less than maybe some 4-5K. I'm not sure what is these days the Medicare doctor's fee for a colonoscopy. I believe it is not much more than a couple of hundred dollars. I believe it should not be hard to find a private practitioner who will agree to perform the whole thing for $300-500. It could be that the single greatest reason for the skyrocketing healthcare costs is that care is increasingly connected to hospitals. A hospital will buy out a medical practice, retain the same doctor as a salaried employee - and suddenly the doc has no say about the amounts they charge. I read that about 60% of primary healthcare settings are owned or controlled by hospital systems. The reason this is happening is a misallocation of funding between Medicare Parts A and B. Part A (hospitals) is relatively more generous. As simple as that. A few bureaucrats decide on the amounts to be paid for DRG's vs. medical services to docs, and guess what -- it profoundly changes the entire structure of healthcare in the nation. That's why I say that what we have now is the net result of decades of government manipulations and mutilations. And regulation is a funny thing -- there are always unregulated niches. Hospitals are under obligation to provide care to any person who comes to the Emergency department. In return, they can charge an arm and a leg for services. AND - they do.