Health care costs in the US are rising more everywhere, and a new study on Wednesday suggests that people seeking care for neurological problems are no exception. The study found that people with private insurance are increasingly paying out of pocket for services such as MRIs, and that these costs increased over 15 years.
The study, published Wednesday in Neurology, looked at the data from more than 3 million patients enrolled in a single private health care plan. They looked at neurology-related health care services, such as evaluation or management visits with doctors, electromyograms (used to test the connection between our muscles and nerve cells), and MRIs and other brain imaging exams. . The study period was between 2001 and 2016.
They found that, everywhere, these services affected patients over time. In 2001, about 30% of patients had to pay out of pocket for an electromyogram, but this increased to just over 50% in 2016. The same pattern was even worse for MRI, with about 24% of patients having to pay for in 2001 but almost 70% did the same in 2016. The percentage of people who paid out-of-pocket for doctor visits remained higher but higher over the years, with about 95% paying in 2016, up from 86.5% in 2001.
Patients also pay more in advance for these exams and tests over time, although real costs fluctuate enormously. The average cost of an MRI test on your own in 2016 it was $ 103, for example, but costs can reach $ 875 for those over 95 percent of patients in the new study. People enrolled in large deductible health plans also often pay even more than others.
As the authors note, many Americans are dressed in cash as they are. They highlight research suggesting that around 30% of people would find it difficult to afford to pay $ 400 in emergency expenses in addition to their regular bills. Other research showed that over 50% of Americans are financially burdened or worried about the high costs of health care.
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“In this context, neurological evaluation could lead to financial difficulties for patients,” the authors wrote.
Researchers point out that these rising healthcare costs will only make it more likely that people will stop seeing a neurologist when needed or avoid testing that would diagnose urgent neurological problems – something that is already happening for health care in general. A poll published in May found about 22% of Americans gave up health care because of costs in the past year, while another 15% said someone in their family did so.
Despite these trends, the costs of health care and insurance are expected to continue to rise, although it is not however clear how much impact the covid-19 pandemic will have on these increases. The authors offer some recommendations that would make navigating these costs a little easier, such as transposing out-of-pocket costs directly for patients and doctors. But nothing but drastic action by parliamentarians will significantly reduce the burden that people will have to bear.
“Costs have risen to the point where systematic change is needed,” James C. Stevens, president of the American Academy of Neurology, he said in a statement freed Wednesday in response to the study’s findings. “These changes could include legislative action to put costs out of pocket. The American Academy of Neurology advocates for such caps for out-of-pocket drug costs in Washington, DC. ”