What if there was a government website listing all doctors with pricing info and official complaints

[dkf]

The biggest problem with medical costs is that we have no idea what they are beforehand and have no way to judge whether they will be reasonable or not. Also when a doctor gives a diagnosis and prescribes some drugs we should have the option of punching it in our iPhones and finding the best drug for the amount spent.

This might not be practical in a medical emergency but it would be good for routine medical care.

[LiberalEsto]

1. We'd also need to post insurance co-pays

and deductibles so that everyone can shop for better healthcare insurance.

[dkf]

2. Seriously wouldn't that be the biggest game changer in terns of costs?

So much easier than mandatory insurance.

And can we walk into a lab and order our own testing to get our own results? If it comes up fishy then we see the doc.

[ElmoBlatz]

3. Call Doctors offices and ask

I've done it before.

[timeforpeace]

4. Docs get paid by insurance companies (ask them) and official complaints are accessible from state

licensure boards.

[boppers]

5. http://www.ratemds.com/

There are a few of these already.

[dkf]

7. Except the insurance companies already have loads of data on every doctor.

A friend of mine works for one of the health insurance networks who keeps tabs on their participating doctors and he says if I knew what he knew I would be really surprised at how bad some doctors are.

I went to ratemd and there is a very short list with not many comments. It did have one complaint about my doctor though but it was about the diagnostic lab the patient was referred to by the doc.

[boppers]

8. Would it be legal for the insurance companies to share that info?

I can imagine *WAVES* of defamation/slander/(etc.) lawsuits...

[dkf]

9. Wouldn't the complaints be investigated?

I imagine there are some conclusion to them.

Besides these websites already exist except they are even more anonymous and possibly libelous.

[busymom]

6. duplicate