South Portland doctor stops accepting insurance, posts prices online

I would totally use this guy as my doctor. I'm self-employed and have insurance, but have a high deductible and pay most office visits out of pocket. It is next to IMPOSSIBLE to get a doctor's office to quote me a cash price for services, and it's not fun to make an appointment and find out later what I'm paying.

I recently switched pediatricians to someone closer to home for my kids. Then I got the $155 bill for a standard visit when my kid had croup. Previous doc ran $75 for the same thing so I'll be switching back. Wish I'd known BEFORE I got the bill for $80 more than I expected! There shouldn't be that much discrepancy in prices for the same service. It's ridiculous.

THAT is the problem, though, because of insurance their offices can't give you an estimate.

never heard of concierge medicine before so i googled it and ... i love it.  wish i had one in my area.  sounds AWESOME.

The chargemaster is still just a symptom and not the cause.  The reason prices are high in hospitals and clinics is because there is way too much demand and not enough supply and insurance skews it badly.  If you have an $8000 surgery, you don't care because you're only paying $300 out of pocket.  You don't even care if it costs $800,000 if you're only paying $300.

If supply and demand is allowed to work and the hospitals don't have people beating down the door for frivolous care then the chargemaster wanting to jam the insurance company loses his power quickly.  Same thing if more of the costs are actually incurred by the patient versus being hidden by the insurance company.

As a comparison, lets take auto insurance.  I pay around $40 a month for my car insurance with a $1000 deductible.  I get a crack in my windshield I call around to a half a dozen glass shops and go to the cheapest one.  I pay my $300 out of pocket even though I have insurance.  The glass guy could try and charge me $1000 for the windshield, but he has plenty of competition so I ignore any gouging and go where the best deal is.
However, if my insurance was say $10 a month to me or free because my employer subsidized/paid for it and I only had to pay a $20 "copay" to get my windshield replaced I'd do that all day long.  Heck, I'd care a less about my windshield getting cracked.  Bring on the gravel roads, I have no fear...  I'd even go to the best, most expensive place in town.  The same effect would happen with all the other car owners, so now all of a sudden the demand for glass replacement has gone through the roof and the glass company has more business than he can handle so he starts jacking his prices up to $500, $600, or even $1000 to replace the same windshield.  He does this because the insurance companies keep on paying him to do it.
My insurance premium will go up due to the increased costs but I don't really care because my companies covering the vast majority of it and I'm only paying $15 a month now versus $10 and my copay went up to $30.

Obviously the whole healthcare/insurance thing is more complex than my little analogy due to things like frivolous lawsuits, unnecessary tests conducted for CYA purposes, etc... but you get the idea.

thought about this thread today.  i wanted to reschedule (aka cancel) a therapy appt for this afternoon, and forgot.  i'm well aware of the rule of cancel a day in advance or pay the fee so i ask the receptionist what the fee is.  "well, it can be $10 to $130, it's up to the doc.  when would you like to reschedule?" 

my copay is ~$80.  if the fee is greater than that i'll just run in, pay my copay, and leave.  if the fee is $10, send me a bill.  but i need to know the effing fee to make a decision here. 

just another symptom of how ridiculous this all is.  bring on socialism.

Seems to me that if they don't have a written cancellation policy, you don't owe a thing.  Or at the very least, you're in a negotiation.  I would start the negotiations at you paying $0 and finding a new doc.  But I can't believe they have it set up where the doc can pick your penalty based on his mood.

usually the fee is a flat $50 or $75 or you will still be charged for your appointment, but it's clearly stated somewhere.

lucky for me, the appt was the last appt of the day at 515 pm and the doc decided to charge me nothing - she gets to go home an hour early, after all.  but yes, "it's up to the doctor" is crazy.  (ironic that it's crazy, this is my psychologist office we are talking about)