By Jan Greene I had the opportunity to meet a family that's been through hell and back, but managed to remain smart and informed consumers of healthcare even as their toddler son endured a long and difficult fight with liver cancer. The Clarks, Richard and Diane, realized their son Dillon was sick during a...
By Jan Greene The folks at Consumers Union, who publish Consumer Reports Health, have taken their show on the road this summer to bring attention to the many and varied flaws in the U.S. healthcare system. You can track their progress on their Cover America Tour site. Ultimately, the three young campaigners in an...
By Jan Greene Wasn't that some culture's curse — may you live in interesting times? Well, in healthcare we're smack in the middle of interesting times, and they don't want to let up. I've been busy with work (a good thing for a freelance writer! A bad thing for a blogger!) so I've been...
By Jan Greene In our continuing quest to advance healthcare transparency, I'm seeking out websites that reveal actual prices that hospitals (and other healthcare providers) charge for their services. Nothing is ever that simple, of course; the bottom line for a hospital stay or other service is going to depend on your health plan...
By Jan Greene There's a really interesting column in the Wall Street Journal this week by Dr. Benjamin Brewer, who writes regularly about his experiences in the American health system. He talks about taking his daughter to an emergency room for stitches and getting a surprisingly high bill. His comments address what this blog...
By Jan Greene One of the many frustrating things about paying for healthcare these days is finding out how much you should be paying for a hospital-based service. It's completely hit-or-miss if you call a hospital's billing department and ask how much they would charge, list price, for a given procedure…maybe an elective surgery...
By Jan Greene Greetings. There's an interesting chicken-or-egg thing that goes into starting a blog. Do you just start writing even if nobody's out there? Or do you put together a comprehensive package and then start publicizing? I'm guessing this is a little of both. I'm going to keep commenting on what's going on...
By Jan Greene It occurs to me that I’ve asked folks to share the intimate details of their health and financial problems. Not everybody is willing to tell the world about the trouble they had getting their insurance company to pay for their therapy bills or hemorrhoid treatments. After all, as I remind myself...
by Jan Greene OK, let’s get things rolling here. How about some dialog about how insurance is changing these days. Many people have told me about shrinking benefits, higher deductibles and certainly higher premiums over the past few years. I’m self-employed and buy an individual, high-deductible policy. I pay the first $2,500 of most...
By Jan Greene Greetings. Have you noticed that your health coverage has gotten more difficult to deal with in the past few years? I’ve been asking around, and here are the kinds of problems people tell me about: –An employer’s health plan changes and suddenly a family is responsible for the first $750 of...