[EamonnMR]

These are the stick that they threaten to beat the uninsured with to bargan with insurance companies. The entire process is ridiculous, and while they can hide behind whatever they want to say the "real" prices are, these are the threat. "I won't pull this trigger, I'll just wave it in your face until they empty the cash register."

[nonbel]

You've got it wrong. The uninsured don't pay these prices, the insurance companies don't pay them either.

The people getting screwed are those who pay a deductible/co-pay based on the inflated prices, ie the people who pay for health insurance.

[dragonwriter]

> The people getting screwed are those who pay a deductible/co-pay based on the inflated prices

I.e., insured patients getting service from out of network providers; otherwise, if you have insurance, and you are paying deductible or co-insurance, it's based on the insurance negotiated price, not the chargemaster price. OTOH, if you are paying a co-pay, it's a flat fee in your insurance policy and the actual (chargemaster or negotiated) price is irrelevant.

[nonbel]

You sure about that? I am fairly certain I've read of cases where it made more sense to pay the uninsured rate (because uninsured rate is even less than the deductible).

Eg, the chargemaster rate could be $10k and you have a $2k deductible but the uninsured rate is $1k:

> "Because of the way insurance contracts are typically structured between providers and insurers, the provider is required to charge the full “negotiated” rate they and the insurer have agreed to, even though the patient is paying the entire bill themselves. This creates the odd situation where someone who is uninsured will get a better price than someone with insurance, even if both of them are paying the whole bill themselves."

http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/01/03/insured-patients-can-sa...