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I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

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Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#181

Post by protomyth »

doktrin wrote: post #178
Nadya wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another user, Siphor, went through the documents in a response on another thread [0]. I think the second paragraph adds some important context, especially in regards to the accusations of Mr. Song committing insurance fraud. >The most damning thing in there was that the Doctor tested for HHV-6 (something 100% of humans have) and then charged for it and claimed it was HHV-2 (genital herpes). Theres apparently a lab te…

what's the point of ordering a nonsense lab test? Is a HHV-6 test significantly cheaper than one for HHV-2?

Order a test that comes back almost 100% positive then claim it was another test which requires treatment which generates a profit.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#182

Post by tomohawk »

Yelp is pretty bad with the negative reviews, and is sometimes used by groups to target businesses for non business reasons.

Here's some examples of veterinarians who have have run ins with Yelp (leading to suicide in one case), and some of the mitigations they try:

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/negative-reviews-yelp-and-y...

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#183

Post by mynameisvlad »

conanbatt wrote: post #151
mynameisvlad wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't the costs be disclosed upfront? Whenever I go to the dentist and I need to have some work done, I get an estimate telling me how much it costs and how much they expect the insurance company to cover. This isn't rocket science, it can easily be calculated, and should be, as you said, for the benefit of everyone.

Because the dentist will diagnose you first. When someone says they have a headache, you dont know if he needs an MRI that costs thousands of dollars, or aspirin which is cents. And also, each insurance pays differently for the same service. You can always go as a patient to an all cash-clinic, which will have fixed pricing, but then you throw away the benefit of your insurance.

> And also, each insurance pays differently for the same service.

Yes, and the provider knows more or less upfront how much each insurance provider will cover. My dentist can handle this just fine for every single procedure and I'm out of network. They've never been wrong. The coverages are fairly standard as are in/out of network fees.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#184

Post by mynameisvlad »

dfsegoat wrote: post #61
mynameisvlad wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't the costs be disclosed upfront? Whenever I go to the dentist and I need to have some work done, I get an estimate telling me how much it costs and how much they expect the insurance company to cover. This isn't rocket science, it can easily be calculated, and should be, as you said, for the benefit of everyone.

I too wonder why the MD side of healthcare doesn't work more like this in the US. I was actually very taken aback recently when I needed to get dental work and was presented with costing info about 10 mins after my visit started. It did feel a bit greasy, I must admit - but I get that the point is for everyone to be on the same page before the procedure. edit: I now recall that I did use Urgent Care for awhile for he…

All of what I said was with a US dentist. They're out of network but I honestly don't even care with the level of service they've given me. Every visit I feel at ease, and they always walk me through everything using photos and showing me on the x-rays. They never bullshit me and have always made sure I understood why they were doing what they were doing and what they are looking for and are concerned about.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#185

Post by Broken_Hippo »

b_t_s wrote: post #140
OscarCunningham wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "prices" are moves in a game played between hospitals and insurance providers, and don't correspond to anything real or to the amount that gets paid. If a hospital discovers that the patient doesn't have insurance they'll be charged the real (more reasonable) prices instead.

It's not "if the hospital discovers", it's if the patient is uninsured and makes it clear to the billing department that they're hopelessly broke, then the hospital gets flexible with the charges or even writes them off. Many billing departments have flexibility and expect to write off a fair number of bills rather than send them to collections, but they're hardly pushing discounted bills or automatically giving disc…

If you get lucky you get that. Hospital around where I was (Indiana) rarely did such things. My uncle owed over 250k for emergency heart surgery. That was the discounted price, "as low as they could go".

Dude only made around 30k per year... doing flooring, which could now kill him. Even if he could go back to his work, he had been off work for a couple months. The hospital's "reasonable payments" exceeded his income with work, and was impossible out. More common was a collection agency and eventual court date.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#186

Post by Broken_Hippo »

phonon wrote: post #114
ssijak wrote: post #45

One thing that sticks to me when I read such articles (I am not from US) is how ridiculously pricey medical services are. Common, 1k$ for a regular exam that costs like 20euros in my country in private clinics?! And I read about this ridiculous prices US so often that I am dumbstruck that people are cool with it. Another thing that struck me is that if you don`t have money, evil people can just silence you by suing y…

The price they billed her (after her insurance negotiated its standard discount) was $427.

To be fair... that 427 is more than I'll pay for normal doctor's services in an entire year. (Some things have a different category, but I'm still in less than $1k for the year). I'm in Norway, which isn't exactly known for being a low-cost nation.

Now, I understand I pay taxes to cover health care. This isn't really any worse than I was paying in the states in my monthly premiums. The thing is that it creates a wonderful sort of stability in life. I can plan on taxes, I can plan on the out-of-pocket costs for a year. I won't go bankrupt. I no longer feel I'm getting ripped off for something I might have little to no control over.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#187

Post by wyldfire »

amelius wrote: post #127
simonbarker87 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question that I feel I already know the answer to but, how do people afford to defend themselves if the costs are that high?!

And another question: why is the market failing here?

One (modest) force that coerces the market: you nearly always must attend law school. Unlike Lincoln, John Adams, Marshall, et al, you have to get a degree from a law school in order to become an attorney. Apprenticeship is peanuts compared to getting a degree (provided you can find a sponsor). There's a handful of US states that still permit apprenticeship, but most do not.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#189

Post by confiscate »

ceejayoz wrote: post #27
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #5

> “They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. That screams HIPAA violation, to me. The practice could (and should) be shut down over it.

If it happened. The story is in a tabloid, and that's such an insanely egregious breach of HIPAA that I'm a little skeptical that it played out exactly like that.

why do you blame the tabloid? The quote said "They posted my", so it looks likely that it was the woman who said it, no?

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#190

Post by fencepost »

phonon wrote: post #113
coding123 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha, that's really interesting to hear. I'm almost certain a Judge is also not allowed access to medical records. He most likely is not a covered entity. Beyond that while it might make sense to request medical records in a criminal trial, there's no place for that in a civil suit.

If the civil suit is about medical treatment, do you really think posting responsive documents to the court docket is a HIPAA violation?

If the civil suit is about medical treatment, do you really think posting responsive documents to the court docket is a HIPAA violation?

If it's not posted under seal, then yes. Particularly if it's posted as part of the initial filing and not as a response.

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