my experience is the cash discounts happen on services and tests. especially lab work.
when i was in the er 6 months ago, my bill came to me with the fees in 2 columns, my price without insurance, and the insurance price.
also, speciaized doctors do not lower their fees, when i go to see the endocronologist, the cash fee is $350 per visit and the insured fee is the same. that endo will order a full blood panel for me, if i go through his office to get it at labcorp, the bill will be $1000, they don't accept cash paying customers.
www.labcorp.com
however, i can go to econolab directly and go there the bill is closer to $250
https://www.econolabs.com/category_s/20.htm
here's more:::::::::
Budget gaps at hospitals have forced many institutions to raise prices, even as new government rules have placed some limits on what they can charge the patients without insurance, according to the LAT. Ultimately the cost to underwrite the uninsured is passed on to insurance companies and insured patients -- who can end up paying up to 10 times as much as cash-pay patients do for the same procedure.
Quote:
The California Hospital Assn. says that discounted cash prices are intended for the uninsured, not those who have coverage. Jan Emerson-Shea, a vice president at the industry group, said most hospitals offer a separate discount to insured patients who are willing to pay their portion upfront.
"If you have insurance, you are under that insurance plan's negotiated rate with the hospital," she said.
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Robert Berenson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and vice chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, big hospitals are exerting their market power to charge ever-increasing rates and major insurers go along with it because they can pass along the costs to employers and consumers. Insurance industry officials say that health plans negotiate the lowest prices they can, but that they also need to include prominent hospitals favored by customers in the network, and those institutions can command higher prices.
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A Long Beach hospital charged Jo Ann Snyder $6,707 for a CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis after colon surgery. But because she had health insurance with Blue Shield of California, her share was much less: $2,336.
Then Snyder tripped across one of the little-known secrets of healthcare: If she hadn't used her insurance, her bill would have been even lower, just $1,054.
At Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where Snyder got her CT scan, the hospital's chief financial officer said insured patients like her pay more to subsidize the uncompensated care given to the uninsured and low reimbursements for Medicaid patients.
"We end up being forced to charge a premium to health plans to make the books balance," said John Bishop, the hospital's finance chief. "It's a backdoor tax on employers and consumers."
http://www.latimes.com/business/heal...#ixzz2oggQFRgN