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The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

nytimes.com

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Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#191

Post by hockley »

maxsilver wrote: post #128
mistermann wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone knowledgeable on the subject comment on whether the "Obamacare movement" has been up front in acknowledging this aspect of the problem with health care in the US? My perception is that the problem is typically framed as a lack of insurance problem for financially challenged people, but the "abuse" on the billing side to me seems like at least as big of a problem. And if this is being conveniently ignored,…

> My perception is that the problem is typically framed as a lack of insurance problem for financially challenged people, but the "abuse" on the billing side to me seems like at least as big of a problem. If anything, the billing abuse is a much, much larger problem than lack of insurance. At least, that has generally been true since the ACA/"Obamacare" changes passed.

It was a problem before ACA; it's a problem now. The law didn't really change that aspect of the system.

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#192

Post by dankohn1 »

jazzyk wrote: post #183
heartbreak wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the progressives including President Obama pushed for single payer (or a public option) which would eliminate abuse on the billing side, at least to the insured.

The single-payer option was quickly dropped by the Democrats in Congress. Their sponsors (the health-"care" industry) did not like it.

Joe Lieberman single-handedly killed the public option. He was able to do so because he was the 60th vote the Democrats needed.

Source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/the_deat...

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#193

Post by jazzyk »

albinofrenchy wrote: post #184
jazzyk wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The single-payer option was quickly dropped by the Democrats in Congress. Their sponsors (the health-"care" industry) did not like it.

It was dropped because it was politically impossible and it wasn't worth burning political capital on it. Even just the public option wasn't able to gain traction; single payer was never going to happen in 2009.

Strictly speaking, it was politically possible - the Democrats had majority in both the Congress and the Senate.

Public option is a great solution, because it does not prevent the people who prefer (and can afford) to pay for private services from doing so.

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#194

Post by laydn »

coreyp_1 wrote: post #22

I am having problems with my insurer at this very moment. I went to an in-network hospital for an ER visit, which turned into an 8-day stay (yes, it was serious). Evidently, none of the doctors at the hospital are in-network, however, (claims from various technicians are still "in processing", so I don't know how they will turn out) despite the fact that the hospital itself is definitely in-network. I had no choice a…

How do they get away with charging $FULL_RATE for a 2 minute visit is a mystery to me. How is that not criminal?

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#195

Post by swampthinker »

SpaceRaccoon wrote: post #121
madengr wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, no argument there. I work for Fortune #75 (hint; it's probably hanging on your wall). Lost dental insurance last year, vision the previous year, and switched to an HDP the year before (with massive premium increases every year). But hey, the stock price was at an all-time high on Friday. Funny thing about HR directors is that they don't last more than 1 year before rotating out. Don't want them to become too att…

>I work for Fortune #75 (hint; it's probably hanging on your wall). Honeywell; thermostats?

HON stock did just hit an all time high.

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#196

Post by pascalxus »

mapster wrote: post #152
pascalxus wrote: post #3

So, basically, if you visit any emergency room then your handing them a blank Check and they can write whatever number on there they want. That's egregious beyond belief. I'm never one to call for legislation and price controls, but in the face of such adversity, I think it may be our last hope. I think they should either provide a quote before they offer the services or there should be a law limiting the amount that…

sinks the whole 'the free market will self-police' fallacy. esp re: health and environment, finance, and worker safety, corporations need regulation, badly.

this is a unique situation. Customers can't shop around for the best price because there are laws in place that prevent insurance companies from offering plans that are sufficiently cost effective in such emergency room visits (and a host of other conditions as well). Otherwise, I'm sure someone would have recognized these problems and offered an insurance plan that protects you from this. Free-market can't do anything when it's hands are tied behind it's back.

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#197

Post by stronglikedan »

seppin wrote: post #144
ydt wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this same thing happen. My daughter was admitted via ER and it turned into a 6 day stay. At the end we received a bill for 40k for being out of network. Luckily I have friends in the industry and it turns out if they fail to inform you within 48 hours that you're not in network you don't have to pay the out of network cost. We ended up paying just our deductible after a letter was drafted. Do not take what the…

> Do not take what the hospital/insurance Co say at face value. Call an attorney. What a terrible industry.

That applies to any and all insurance - especially mandated insurance policies. The main job of the insurance company is to collect your premiums and the find any way to deny your claims.

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#198

Post by guntars »

madengr wrote: post #67
e40 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Work for a Fortune 100 Company too. Your HR department is shit. I manage a 30 person company and our benefits are better than what you've mentioned.

Yes, no argument there. I work for Fortune #75 (hint; it's probably hanging on your wall). Lost dental insurance last year, vision the previous year, and switched to an HDP the year before (with massive premium increases every year). But hey, the stock price was at an all-time high on Friday. Funny thing about HR directors is that they don't last more than 1 year before rotating out. Don't want them to become too att…

To be fair, health insurance doesn't HAVE TO be provided through work. It's easier than ever to find a private plan. To the employer it's just another employee cost along with salary so if you didn't ask for a raise when that happened, that's on you then.

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#199

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

mistermann wrote: post #107
spinlock wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are "bad" guys. I've pointed out to a doctor that their agreement said that I would agree to pay any charge they decided to bill me for. I pointed out that I was in their office because they were in network for my insurance and that I couldn't agree to pay literally anything they decided to bill. So, I asked them to tell me what the maximum they might bill would be. And, they kicked me out of the office…

> So, I asked them to tell me what the maximum they might bill would be. And, they kicked me out of the office. Sounds like dental care in Canada.

The funny thing is that dental care in the US is the exact opposite. If you ask $RANDOM_DENTAI_CLINIC what the cost for $RANDOM_PROCEDURE will be, they can quote you a price that will generally be pretty accurate.

I'm told this came about because historically more people had to pay for dental services out of pocket, so dental offices were used to having standard fees that they could just look up.

Re: The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills

#200

Post by keithpeter »

dragonwriter wrote: post #171
chimeracoder wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're pretty good at dealing with pregnancies, cancers, and emergencies I agree with everything you say, except the part about cancer. Even by European standards, the NHS is actually quite terrible at dealing with cancers - even "routine" cancers (like breast cancer and prostate cancer), let alone rare cancers. The five-year survival rate for prostate cancer in the UK is 55%, whereas in the US it's upwards of 90%…

> The five-year survival rate for prostate cancer in the UK is 55%, whereas in the US it's upwards of 90%. Such survival rates are from date of diagnosis; IIRC, because prostate cancer detected early usually doesn't have interventions that are less harmful than the cancer is likely to be, there's considerable debate about the utility of screening; there has been considerable argument that the US tends to overscreen a…

Last sentence in your post: would I be right in assuming that the incidence (e.g. cases per 100000 men) of prostrate cancer should be lower in UK than USA because more men in UK die with un-diagnosed prostrate cancer?
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