OPINION: Rising health care costs are now an emergency — and Congress must help keep runaway bills in check
As a former emergency room physician, one of the saddest scenarios I encountered was patients coming in with crises that could have been prevented with routine medical care. It wasn’t uncommon to have patients with diabetes come in because they’d had to ration their insulin, or patients with other manageable conditions entering in crisis simply […]
Concerned physician: Hospitals buy practices and charge patients more for the same services
I am a physician who has served the Northern Virginia community for over 12 years, and I have seen many trends in health care that aren’t in the best interest of our patients. Hospital consolidations are one such trend, where large systems buy up other hospitals, independent physician offices and freestanding diagnostic and care facilities […]
Proliferation of hospital-based fees has a remedy: the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act
Health care providers see patients in our exam rooms these days who are struggling with more than just illnesses and injuries. Far too many are also struggling with huge medical bills. To the many factors, including astronomical prescription drug prices and insurance premiums, we now add another driver of rising health care costs: mysterious charges […]
