Health care cost resource

I just stumbled across this site for finding basic health procedure costs in New Hampshire. It's pretty eye opening. It's also refreshing to see prices disclosed so frankly for the public. Working in the health care industry, I'm constantly running into the brick wall that is CPT codes and medical pricing.

Another great site is the Physician Procedures section of the MyHealthScore web site.

More pricing information needs to be disclosed if medical costs are ever going to be brought back under control. Funny how the doctor's love the free market system when it comes to bringing down the cost of their new Mercedes, but they don't necessarily want clear stated pricing in the medical world, because that could lead to competition.

Bad news for insurance stocks is good news for you!

The NY Times is reporting that many analysts think it could be a bad year for the stocks of large insurance companies. Why might this be a good thing for you, the business owner or individual? The second paragraph from the bottom gives it away, that the Blues (BlueCross and BlueShield companies) will face sizable reserves that they will use to drive down prices and force the big companies to compete. For those of you specifically in Washington state, it will be interesting to see what happens as the two largest providers of small group coverage in Washington are Regence (Blue Shield) and Premera (BlueCross).