Latest / Chuck Douglas / Cheaper medical costs with Dr. Bill Hennessey of Care Guide.

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Cheaper medical costs with Dr. Bill Hennessey of Care Guide. · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: The murdered CEO of a United health Care and there's
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  Speaker 1: still a lot of speculation as to why this happened.
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  Speaker 1: Many are believing that he allegedly has some sort of
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  Speaker 1: chronic back issues or something. Many believe it was an
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  Speaker 1: insurance coverage thing and he was upset about something having
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  Speaker 1: to do with maybe something that was covered or not covered,
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  Speaker 1: or something along those lines. And it got me to thinking,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the American health care system has undergone so
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  Speaker 1: so many twist and turns since Barack Obama was in office,
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  Speaker 1: and we're in a rough position with health care frankly,
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  Speaker 1: because okay, everybody needs it. Everybody needs health care. Not
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  Speaker 1: necessary to health insurance. Healthcare two different things. You cannot
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  Speaker 1: rely on government to do anything, well, just that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of the nature of the beast, do it badly, So
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  Speaker 1: taking you know, as they said, one seventh of the
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  Speaker 1: US economy in nationalizing it. Government taking over health care
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  Speaker 1: not a good idea. Opposite extreme in a capitalist society,
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  Speaker 1: having healthcare that is strictly capitalist based also probably not
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  Speaker 1: a good idea. Ultimately, only people with money will be
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  Speaker 1: able to have care. There's got to be a middle
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  Speaker 1: ground in there somewhere, but until there is, until we
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  Speaker 1: find something that works, because obviously what we have has not.
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  Speaker 1: It got me to thinking, is anybody going to bat
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  Speaker 1: for the people? So I started doing a little investigating
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  Speaker 1: came across something called care Guide, an don't care guid
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  Speaker 1: What is that all about? Care Guide Advocates, as they
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  Speaker 1: describe themselves, the organization a medical cost saving, transparency and
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  Speaker 1: advocacy company world class advocates using proprietary software platforms along
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  Speaker 1: with national custom pricing databases to enhance affordable access to
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  Speaker 1: care before and after the care has occurred. Basically, what
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  Speaker 1: they do is go in and try to get you
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  Speaker 1: a better deals, better cost on you know, what you're paying,
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  Speaker 1: what you're being billed, and so forth for your health care.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, well who are these people and
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  Speaker 1: what I need to know a little about. Doctor Bill
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  Speaker 1: Hennessy was the name attached to what I was reading,
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  Speaker 1: and I thought, okay, well I don't know anything about Bill.
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  Speaker 1: Then I found out chief and Innovation Officer. He is
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  Speaker 1: a medical doctor, chief innovation officer at this county and
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  Speaker 1: top of the list. He's also a buck guy, So
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  Speaker 1: I gotta like him already just because of his buck
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  Speaker 1: eye connection. Doctor Hennessy, thanks for making some time this evening.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate you. No problemh I oh, my friend, let's
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  Speaker 1: see how that goes for us on Saturday. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: looking for another night game. I'm too old for night games.
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  Speaker 1: I just I'll be asleep by the time it's all decided.
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  Speaker 1: But well, I'll wish him the best as they go
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  Speaker 1: up against Tennessee. Wishing us the best as we deal
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  Speaker 1: with this healthcare thing. And again, the prominence of this,
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  Speaker 1: this homicide kind of brings to mind. You know what
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  Speaker 1: the American healthcare system is all about. The costs involved
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  Speaker 1: are you know, outrageous by most standards. Most people can't
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  Speaker 1: afford to do anything on their own. The insurance companies
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  Speaker 1: not necessarily helpful many ways, especially since the advent of
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  Speaker 1: the HMO system and things like that. Where do you
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  Speaker 1: come in as far as and not only is the
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  Speaker 1: chief Innovation offers officer, but the company care guy, where
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  Speaker 1: do you come into the process in helping the consumer?
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's only two times that we can help a
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  Speaker 2: patient save money on care, either before it occurred or
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  Speaker 2: after it occurred. If it's before any of the fifty states,
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  Speaker 2: we can help tell you where to go and what
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  Speaker 2: to pay. I can rattle off you should pay somewhere
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  Speaker 2: between fifteen hundred and two thousand dollars for an upper
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  Speaker 2: lower giscope. New doctor visits one hundred and seventy five dollars,
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  Speaker 2: follow up those it should be one hundred and twenty five dollars.
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  Speaker 2: I can just rattle off the price of care, and
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  Speaker 2: so can our team, and then we actually know how
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  Speaker 2: to go out and get that and find that care
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  Speaker 2: for you options.
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  Speaker 1: That's the rub right there. It's great to quote the prices,
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  Speaker 1: but do you have a path to success when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to getting the prices that you say you should
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  Speaker 1: be able to get.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, there is a pathway, and I will let one
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  Speaker 2: cat out of the bag. Don't go to the hospital
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  Speaker 2: unless you need hospitalized. So if there are freestanding, non
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  Speaker 2: hospital owned blood work centers like Quest Diagnostics or an
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  Speaker 2: independent surgery center for a GI scope, those are going
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  Speaker 2: to cost a half or a third of the hospital
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  Speaker 2: and it's for routine care, not life threatening care. Good doctors.
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  Speaker 2: So that's trick one. But trick two is there's a
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  Speaker 2: federal right. There are price transparency laws. The hospital must
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  Speaker 2: tell you the price of care. You don't know how
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  Speaker 2: to ask for it. We do. They made it frustrating
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  Speaker 2: so that you'd open up your wallet. We say no, no,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to ask for the cash price, and if
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  Speaker 2: you have insurance, then second we're going to ask for
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  Speaker 2: the insurance price. Eighty percent of working in America does
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  Speaker 2: not meet its deductible, so we think you should tick
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  Speaker 2: the lower price. But now we're going to get you
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  Speaker 2: the price. We're going to do all that work for you.
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  Speaker 2: So whether it's a hospital or non hospital setting, we're
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  Speaker 2: going to get you your cash and insurance company prices,
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  Speaker 2: and you're going to have no before you go pricing,
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  Speaker 2: like the rest of our entire economy. How novel is that?
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  Speaker 1: Now when you get the quotes, the insurance price versus
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  Speaker 1: a cash price for some medical service, the insurance price
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  Speaker 1: is generally higher. Is that because they know insurance companies
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  Speaker 1: have lots of money? Or is it because they have
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  Speaker 1: to wait longer to get paid. What's the reason for that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, follow all the money, you know, So the hospitals
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  Speaker 2: and the carriers known as Blue Shield United singing that
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  Speaker 2: I love to make money off of our hard working backs.
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  Speaker 2: So if they see you have insurance. They sali they
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  Speaker 2: charged more then they pretend they discounted it, but it
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  Speaker 2: costs more than if you were to pay cash. So yes,
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  Speaker 2: it's called corporate greed.
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  Speaker 1: And that applies to pretty much everything. I think. I
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  Speaker 1: remember back oh late nineties, we had major wins go
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  Speaker 1: through Central Ohio and I had just built a house
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  Speaker 1: in ninety five and myself and most of my neighbors
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  Speaker 1: ended up losing a bunch of shingles from a roof
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  Speaker 1: because of the winds. And I called a well known,
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  Speaker 1: reputable roofing company and had them come out and they
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  Speaker 1: gave me a quote. It was like four thousand dollars,
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  Speaker 1: I think. Then it occurred to one of the neighbors,
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  Speaker 1: Hey we've got builder warranty. These places are only a
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  Speaker 1: year old. When they found out the builder was paying,
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  Speaker 1: we got copies of the invoice after they had done
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  Speaker 1: the work for the bill, and it was double. It
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  Speaker 1: was like eight thousand dollars, simply because they were getting
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  Speaker 1: it from a big pool of money as opposed to
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  Speaker 1: an individual. And I've I've never really understood that concept.
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  Speaker 1: When it's the same service provided by the same people,
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  Speaker 1: using the same facilities, the same equipment, and yet because
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  Speaker 1: of the source of payment, there's such a drastic difference
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  Speaker 1: in cost.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, in the national average for most care within the
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  Speaker 2: same United Healthcare network, for example, is one thousand percent.
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  Speaker 2: So that literally means the same test like a CT
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  Speaker 2: scan could be four hundred dollars at one facility and
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  Speaker 2: it could be four thousand dollars at a different facility.
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  Speaker 2: But they're in network. So if your listeners don't dare
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  Speaker 2: think that because you're in network, that is saving you
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  Speaker 2: money because the pricing variation is as great as I stated.
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  Speaker 1: This is doctor Bill Henessey, by the way, he is
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  Speaker 1: the chief Innovation Officer with care Guide AVOGAC. Is there
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  Speaker 1: a difference you mentioned, you know, don't go to the
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  Speaker 1: hospital these free standing urgent cares and so forth. Is
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  Speaker 1: there a difference between say, one that is affiliated with
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  Speaker 1: a medical company and one that is not affiliated. Do
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  Speaker 1: you get any better deal? Say, you know, Mount Carmel Health,
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  Speaker 1: for example here in Central Ohio is a big deal.
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  Speaker 1: You go to a Mount Carmel Health urgent care. Now
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  Speaker 1: you go to another urgent care that is not affiliated
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  Speaker 1: with a big corporate endity like that? Is the pricing
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  Speaker 1: any different between the two or is it okay just
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  Speaker 1: as long as you're not going to an actual hospital?
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  Speaker 2: Great question, And yes, if Mount Carmel owns that and
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  Speaker 2: it's a free standing facility and not attached to the hospital,
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  Speaker 2: it still gets billed as if it's the hospital. Now,
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  Speaker 2: when specifically it comes to urgent care centers, the hospitals
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  Speaker 2: can do the thing called charging a facility fee. That
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  Speaker 2: means the cost one hundred and seventy five dollars is
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  Speaker 2: the national average for urgent care doctor visit. They'll tack
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  Speaker 2: on one hundred and fifty dollars to say you were
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  Speaker 2: seen in that facility. So if a hospital owned a
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  Speaker 2: barber shop, my hair would US twenty dollars to get cut.
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  Speaker 2: But then if the hospital would charge one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fifty dollars barber fee, and they do so because they say,
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  Speaker 2: well it's legal, it's unethical. I really question it's legality.
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  Speaker 2: I call it a deceptive an unfair act under the
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  Speaker 2: Federal Trade Commission Section five. But nobody wants to pay that,
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  Speaker 2: So you should still stay away from the hospitals when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to urgent cares.
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  Speaker 1: That's just it. It's sad that it's come to this point. Again,
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  Speaker 1: something so basic and I'm not saying nationalize it, make
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  Speaker 1: a government, but there should be. Affordable Healthcare Act should
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  Speaker 1: have actually resulted in affordable health care, and it never
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  Speaker 1: did because government was in control. And that's I think
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  Speaker 1: since we were all supposed to say twenty five hundred
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  Speaker 1: dollars per person for I think we've actually gone up
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  Speaker 1: like two hundred and fifty percent in our health care costs,
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  Speaker 1: which horrible.
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  Speaker 2: I want to give you one good thing of the
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  Speaker 2: Affordable Care Act because overall the four large insurance companies,
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  Speaker 2: they're still buck up one thousand percent since the Affordable
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  Speaker 2: Care Act. I'm pretty sure mining your salaries aren't. But
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  Speaker 2: the afford carect did have that nonprofit hospitals must give
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  Speaker 2: back freeer discount of care. It's called IRS five zero one.
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  Speaker 2: So they must give freeer discount of care because they
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  Speaker 2: benefit thirty seven billion dollars a year by their legal
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  Speaker 2: tax strategy. So I think they should give ten or
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  Speaker 2: twenty billion of it back. All you have to do
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  Speaker 2: if your ballpark making thirty thousand to eighty thousand dollars
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  Speaker 2: in any hospital in the United States, you should ask
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  Speaker 2: to speak to the financial counselor before you pay your bill,
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  Speaker 2: even before you pay your high deductible, because you may
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  Speaker 2: not have to pay it. Because one hundred million people
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  Speaker 2: qualify for freeer discounted care under the Charity Care Act
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  Speaker 2: part of the Affordable Care Act.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, almost a third of the nation. That's pretty strong.
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  Speaker 2: It is. It's meant to be a safety net. You
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  Speaker 2: make too much for medicaid by American standards. You're still
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  Speaker 2: poor and just live in paycheck to paycheck. But you're
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  Speaker 2: not wealthy enough for an overpriced Blue Shield or United
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  Speaker 2: plan that has a six thousand dollars deductible you can't afford.
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  Speaker 2: There's a whole bunch of tens of millions of people
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  Speaker 2: in there that this is ideally designed for. Dougieus, I
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  Speaker 2: don't know about it to me, and you just told them.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you, how are you paid? How are
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  Speaker 1: you compensated? Where? Because obviously you're in business to make money,
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  Speaker 1: you come to the aid of people and help them
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  Speaker 1: get these prices and negotiate things. How do you then
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  Speaker 1: get paid?
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  Speaker 2: We sign up organizations and we are included in hospitalization
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  Speaker 2: policies of like a Philadelphia American Life a company. We're
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  Speaker 2: included in health bundles where telemedicine, all the blood work
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  Speaker 2: you can get at quest and our price transparency and
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  Speaker 2: hospital bill eraser and bill negotiation services unlimited included. HEALTHFREEDOMUS
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  Speaker 2: dot com is one place where you can see our
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  Speaker 2: services bundled and anybody can purchase it today.
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  Speaker 1: That's pretty awesome. If I have to show out the
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  Speaker 1: money to pay you with, you know, it doesn't help
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  Speaker 1: me out if I'm saving a thousand there and paying
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  Speaker 1: you the thousand to save me the thousand your website.
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  Speaker 1: Because again this is important to me simply because of
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  Speaker 1: the homicide. People are talking about healthcare costs and so forth,
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  Speaker 1: and it's especially with the holiday season and bills. You
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  Speaker 1: never know what's going to happen. It's important for me
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  Speaker 1: to know that I've done something that maybe enlighten some
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  Speaker 1: people and turn them onto a way to save money
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  Speaker 1: should they need to with healthcare. So how do they
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  Speaker 1: find out more about you? The organization, contact you, websites
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  Speaker 1: and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, the website is cgasaves dot com that stands for
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  Speaker 2: care Guide Advocates putting the care back into healthcare. And
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  Speaker 2: then you can even find me. I'm pretty prominent on
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  Speaker 2: the LinkedIn for those that do the business networking online.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, you said you are a Buckeye. What part of
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  Speaker 1: the state you from?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I was actually born in Olyria in the Cleveland region,
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  Speaker 2: and I did my physical medicine reabilitation residency at Dodd
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  Speaker 2: Hall at the Ohio State University.
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  Speaker 1: All right, well, I'm glad to hear that too. They
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  Speaker 1: are largely responsible for the fact that you and I
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  Speaker 1: are together and right now, and I'm not a person
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  Speaker 1: in a wheelchair who can't get around, so I am
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  Speaker 1: very grateful we have the Ohio State University Medical Center
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  Speaker 1: and all of its resources here in central Ohio. That's
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  Speaker 1: good to know you have that affiliation. I would like
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  Speaker 1: to if it's okay with you, just tell you right now.
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to talk to you again in the future,
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  Speaker 1: maybe an extended format, maybe pre record, do podcast, because
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  Speaker 1: You've got a lot of out of good, valuable information
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  Speaker 1: and I think you'd be a great resource for people
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  Speaker 1: as we head into this new year under a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of new circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: Be happy to do so. Everybody talks about the problem,
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  Speaker 2: I like to talk about the solution.
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  Speaker 1: Amen, Doctor Bill Hennessy, thank you. Sir, stay warm wherever
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  Speaker 1: you are. We will talk again very very soon.