part one: Marshall Allan of Propublica.org
How a $175 COVID-19 Test Led to $2,479 in ChargesA global pandemic ravaging America is no time to forget the first rule of American health care: There is no set price. One out-of-network medical provider in Texas seeks permission from patients to charge fees as high as six-figures to their insurance.
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-a-covid-19-test-led-to-charges
bio: Marshall Allen investigates why we pay so much for health care in the United States and get so little in return. He is one of the creators of ProPublica’s Surgeon Scorecard, which published the complication rates for about 17,000 surgeons who perform eight common elective procedures. Allen’s work has been honored with several journalism awards, including the Harvard Kennedy School’s 2011 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and coming in as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for work at the Las Vegas Sun, where he worked before coming to ProPublica in 2011. Before he was in journalism, Allen spent five years in full-time ministry, including three years in Nairobi, Kenya. He has a master’s degree in Theology.
How Marshall Allen discovered that the charges for Covid testing can vary from $175 to thousands. He investigated a company called Signature Care in Houston, Texas, and found that surcharges and ‘out of network’ charges could drive the price much higher. This was due to the way that insurance was billed, and how the insurance companies negotiated final payments. This often caused the patient to pay a great deal out of pocket. He had some advice: 1. Get an itemized bill, 2. Examine the billing codes. Remember: ” Health care isn’t broken, it was made this way.” Although the CARES Act specifies that there is no maximum for the charges associated with COVID testing, even though the test itself should be no more than about $200. Mr. Allen’s opinion is that, considering the pandemic, doctors should be paying patients for getting tested, in light of how important that is. Vaccine research should be open source, thus reducing the incentive for spying between countries. Another reason for open source is that most research is being funded by government funds, that is, the taxpayers. For that reason, perhaps the CARES Act should be revisited to correct the cost issue.
contact Marshall.Allen@propublica.org
Part two: Tina Philibotte, mother who is a teacher talks about returning to class: effects on students and teachers.
Christina (Tina) Kim Philibotte is a public school high school teacher in New Hampshire. She is a member of the Endowment for Health’s Race & Equity Advisory Group, a two-time National Writing Project Fellow, and was a 2019 finalist for the NH State Teacher of the Year Program. She founded the NH Educators for Equity group and is a strong advocate for educational equity in New Hampshire.
https://theconversation.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-in-a-globalized-world-109881
We discussed how the discussion about returning to school in NH did not include students, those most affected. We discuss the fact that in Manchester, NH, there are 72 different languages spoken by the students. That represents 72 different cultures. Having the preconception that all students come from only nuclear families, and making decisions about how those students witll react to the virus problem very complex. There are many different families, including multigenerational families, included in the population. The effect of covid infection will have different consquences.
Teachers, too, will have different complex feelings about this. Many teachers are returning under duress. They worry about being in classrooms with infections present, and then bringing those infections home to their families.
