I'm 65, and I did not register for Medicare. How does a hospital decide what to write down in the charge master next to procedure 473? Let's say, you know, it's the M-R- Is it charged for? Yeah, in other words, the MRI with contrast, no angiogram. Who decides that and how do they decide what number to put there? Well, my rather light hearted answer is they write down whatever the number was last year,. And they apply a small percentage of these to it.
Physician and author Vivian Lee talks about her book The Long Fix with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Lee argues that we can transform health care in the United States, though it may take a while. She argues that the current fee-for-service system incentivizes doctors to provide services rather than keep patients healthy and that these are not the same thing. Topics explored include innovations in Medicare and in technology that might change treatment incentives as well as the weird world of health care pricing.