Florida Health Insurance PPO Discounts
 

If given a choice between putting a roof over their head and buying a Florida health insurance policy, a lot of people prefer to live in a house. . Choosing instead to self insure. But without even a high deductible plan they are still missing the boat. 

Simply having a health insurance plan and staying within a PPO network guarantees negotiated rates. The savings can be huge.

Florida hospitals are charging patients without health insurance about two-and-a-half times more than those with insurance, a mark-up that has been steadily rising despite pressure to level prices, a study released on Tuesday found.

In 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, hospital patients without Florida health insurance and others who pay for medical care out of their own pockets were charged an average 2.57 times more than those with health insurance, according to the study publishedin the May-June issue of the journal Health Affairs.

Hospitals in Florida and elsewhere in the United States have come under fire from patient
groups and lawmakers for marking up prices for those lacking the negotiating clout of a health insurer. But the price discrepancies are steadily worsening despite some reform efforts, the article said. 

Hospitals set rates based on a list called the chargemaster, which is generally believed to
inflate prices substantially, in the belief that prices will come down during a negotiation
process.

For-profit hospitals had the highest discrepancy between costs estimated by Medicare and
prices charged, the study found.

UNINSURED WEIGH

But patients without a Florida health insurance plan, about 45 million people in the U.S., lack the ability to negotiate. As it stands, hospitals only collect about 10 cents on the dollar charged to uninsured patients, Anderson said. When a hospital presents a bill that has charges on it, those charges are the same for everyone. What is different is how much insurers may negotiate in terms of discounts with hospitals" Coyle said.