Why we pay so much for hospital care
By adamg - 11/16/08 - 1:14 pm
The Globe reports part of the reason is doctors and we insist on care at MGH, Brigham and Women's and Children's, not just for fancy-shmancy cases but for everything - and they are so big now they can get away with charging dramatically higher rates than community hospitals and even other teaching hospitals in the region:
... [T]he high-end procedures that make the Brigham and Mass. General so famous are not their bread and butter. Eighty-five percent of the time their doctors are performing the same less glamorous medicine that occupies most other hospitals: delivering babies, repairing hernias, treating pneumonia. ...
Comments
Great story , kudos to the
Great story , kudos to the Globe. I think it helps show why our insurance rates are going up.
I personally deal with the Cambridge Health Alliance hospitals the most, and from what I udnerstand they tend to run a little high but nowhere near the Boston hospitals. Ive always felt uncomfortable in the Boston hopsitals and as time goes by (ie as I get older) I find myself being the same age or older then some of the people Im supposed to be putting my life in the hands of (or worse a realtives.) They are huge massive buildings and feel kind of isolated, especially at night. Where as the last time I walked into Mount Auburn Hospital (and Lawrence Memorial) I was greeted by some lady in a bright red pantsuit (amazingly both times I ran into a different lady, but almost the same red pantsuit) who was more the happy to assist me. The last time I walked into a Boston hospital there was some grumpy woman behind bullet proof glass in the lobby. Guess which one I go running to when I need help lol.
Free the data!
Charley on the MTA fills us in on the battle between a state agency charged with publishing the sort of data we could use to make cost-effectiveness judgments and the hospitals, which don't want to make the information public because our silly little heads would just misunderstand it all.
fantastic.
Go Spotlight Team go. This here is some indispensable reading.
I've got good insurance, but I'm loyal to (gasp) BMC, for the extreme compassion and good doctorin' I got from their ER a few years ago. They took pretty damn good care of my junkie roommate (sans insurance or teeth) on the OB/GYN ward, too. If anybody deserves to get paid extra, it's those guys.