Earlier this week, at a local medical facility for a basic checkup – I was presented with a ‘Consent for Treatment’ document.
Here are 3 brief excerpts from that document I feel highlight the incentives healthcare provider have to perform increasing costly services thus inflating healthcare costs.
“I agree to any care (tests, treatment, medicines, etc) my care team believes is needed…”
“…unless I check the boxes below, I agree to let my medical records be used for research…”
“The total charges for my visit will not be known until my care has been completed. I should contact the clinic manager if I want an estimate prior to services…”
Put these three together – and it reads like the clinic is conducting research financed by their patients’ personal healthcare dollars.
And that they’d prefer individual patients didn’t provide a balance, just a check.
Unbelievable.
In my world, where things are rarely a matter of life and death – no one signs away their wallets like this.
There is room for padding of bills through over-treatment under the current system, although there are also plenty of cases where health care consumers are the ones demanding more tests or more rigorous treatments than their doctor recommends, so things are broken from at least two sides.
However, unless you’re without insurance, the rates you’re indirectly paying are negotiated by your insurer. Not exactly a blank check.
If medical records couldn’t be used for research, or if it was an opt-in rather than opt-out process, we’d have one heck of a time doing epidemiological studies. For example, you don’t require people to opt-in to Google Analytics on this site.
Perhaps we can agree these structures make it difficult to have a meaningful discussion about treatment options and associated costs prior to being billed.