Nearly one-third of Americans skipped needed medical care in the past three months due to cost. Even about 20% of the nation’s highest-income households, those earning more than $120,000 per year, blame cost as the reason for not seeking care, up from 3% over the same timeframe. An estimated 150 million Americans say they are now more worried about the … Read More
Three large insurers join forces for health care price transparency
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Inc., the largest U.S. health insurer, will lead an industry effort to throw a spotlight on the prices paid for health-care services, making their costs available to consumers on the Internet. The effort, organized by a nonprofit called the Health Care Cost Institute, builds on steps the Obama administration has taken to shed light on prices charged … Read More
An app a day keeps the doctor away?
Imagine a baby boomer’s surprise at leaving their doctor’s office with a prescription for blood pressure medication and instructions to download an app that will help them manage the symptom. Doctors and health care providers are increasingly “prescribing” apps and enlisting the help of smart devices to help manage their patients’ health: a practice called mobile health (mHealth). In today’s … Read More
The eye popping cost of cancer drugs
While Diagnostic Imaging Services is not an organization that provides oncology services, we do screen and perform exams on people who may receive a new diagnosis of cancer, a notification that a previous cancer has returned or is/has received treatment for cancer. For those people, this story from CBS news may ring very true. For those who have not themselves … Read More
The bigger the hospital the higher the prices
Diagnostic Imaging Services shares an opinion regarding hospital health care costs and sharing one particular reason: “Doctors are fleeing private practices for the security of hospitals, and the exodus will be a disaster for U.S. health care. The bigger hospitals get, the more they can jack up their prices—up to 44 percent higher according to one estimate.” DIS is an … Read More