is it illegal for a doctor/dentist or whatever to just set an office an charge fair prices?

6 comments

1. Yes

2. Not at all. It’s called the “concierge” model, and it’s growing in popularity.

   If you look at the largest cost associated with practicing medicine, it’s the cost of complying with government regulations.

   [https://www.forbes.com/health/healthy-aging/concierge-medicine/](https://www.forbes.com/health/healthy-aging/concierge-medicine/)

3. Nope, but if they don’t accept insurance then it may be harder to convince people to come (since the stigma is that insurance helps pay and makes things cheaper). The main problem with insurance is that they want special benefits for their members, so they make providers raise prices for everyone else to make it look like their insurance has a better deal

4. Some doctors don’t accept any insurance so you have to pay out of pocket for everything. My son’s psychologist doesn’t accept any insurance. It’s expensive, but she’s very good and worth every penny.

5. I used to see a Dr. in NYC (I’m sure he’s retired by now, he was very old 10 years ago). He charged us $20-40 for a general visit, a flat fee for blood tests done in-office (he tested me for an infection) and almost always gave us our prescriptions by reaching his hand into the “sample bag” and grabbing out samples that pharma reps had given him.

   He treated me for one UTI and one poison ivy (how I got that in NYC I’ll never know) and he was like an angel. I can’t write this without smiling thinking of him and his office full of people who didn’t have money and were so grateful to have him.

6. “Fair prices” from a provider’s perspective are higher than what insurance pays