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Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

latimes.com

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Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#61

Post by borkt »

sprucely wrote: post #39
narrator wrote: post #21

This is why I like Kaiser so much. If you make it to a Kaiser emergency room, and you have Kaiser health insurance, you are not going to get an out-of-network surprise bill. Everyone at Kaiser works for Kaiser and is paid a salary by Kaiser and the Kaiser hospital is the only one that bills you.

Kaiser is great for critical care and general practitioner stuff. But they do most of their cost-cutting in specialty care; the stuff that is rare or tends to not be easily diagnosed while having a major impact on patients' quality of life. Just lookup lawsuits and Kaiser mental health.

Also terrible with mental health from what I hear.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#62

Post by ploxiln »

mehrdadn wrote: post #42
throwaway1777 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure if you go through the effort to challenge such charges you can get them changed. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18261698/how-to-fight-expensiv...

The thing I don't understand about tips like these is, what obligation does the other party have to cooperate at all? Like you "ask for a supervisor" (and then a director!) what incentive do they have to not just say no? Or if you ask for an itemized bill, what if they just refuse? How are you supposed to get past a blunt refusal, which to me seems like the easiest response for them?

Sometimes the first price quoted is just a formality. One time my significant other went to an optometrist for a contacts prescription, without optical insurance (long story), and the bill was for $1000. She emailed asking why, and they just replied "here's your updated bill: $250"

I was reminded of this just yesterday by a similarly simple story: https://twitter.com/chrisalbon/status/1172161958759395333

It's sort of like "add to cart to see the real price" but they can't say that. And sometimes hospitals are in a different mode where they fight for it. It's not logical, it's screwed up, but anyway the first bill is usually just fake.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#63

Post by chachachoney »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #30
throwaway1777 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure if you go through the effort to challenge such charges you can get them changed. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18261698/how-to-fight-expensiv...

You need very strong nerves. Their collectors can be very aggressive.

Incredibly useful phrase: "I'd love to get this in front of a judge."

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#64

Post by chachachoney »

merpnderp wrote: post #15
brink wrote: post #4

I just got an itemized bill today for a minor fall I took a couple months back.. On top of the nearly $6k in other charges from the hospital, they charged $531 for one dab of superglue or "liquid stitches" on my forehead for something that would have healed by itself. One of my friends died two years ago from pneumonia. He didn't go to the hospital when symptoms first started because he was afraid of the bills that w…

I had a deep split over my eye (metal ring tossed while I was still down range) and knew going to the ER for stitches would end up costing thousands for a five minute stitch job, so I pinched it together and put on superglue. Healed better than stitches and cost me nothing. I hate our medical system too.

Loctite (blue package) works as good as superglue but stings a lot less.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#65

Post by opportune »

rwcemergency wrote: post #53
brink wrote: post #4

I just got an itemized bill today for a minor fall I took a couple months back.. On top of the nearly $6k in other charges from the hospital, they charged $531 for one dab of superglue or "liquid stitches" on my forehead for something that would have healed by itself. One of my friends died two years ago from pneumonia. He didn't go to the hospital when symptoms first started because he was afraid of the bills that w…

I just got an emergency room bill. I had a severe sore throat and fever for 2 weeks, step tests came back negative. Then at night my back side started hurting so I went to the ER. I paid $850 at the ER and today I received another bill for $850. The only thing on the Bill just says > "Charges": $11,680 > "Adjustmnets: $9,980 I just got off the phone with them and they say that it will take 10 business days to receive…

I am not a lawyer or financial advisor. But I’ve heard that you can’t be sent to collections if you make a good faith attempt to pay your (medical) bill. Which in practice might mean you just pay $5 while you wait for the itemization

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#66

Post by henryfjordan »

sprucely wrote: post #39
narrator wrote: post #21

This is why I like Kaiser so much. If you make it to a Kaiser emergency room, and you have Kaiser health insurance, you are not going to get an out-of-network surprise bill. Everyone at Kaiser works for Kaiser and is paid a salary by Kaiser and the Kaiser hospital is the only one that bills you.

Kaiser is great for critical care and general practitioner stuff. But they do most of their cost-cutting in specialty care; the stuff that is rare or tends to not be easily diagnosed while having a major impact on patients' quality of life. Just lookup lawsuits and Kaiser mental health.

There is an art to navigating specialist care at Kaiser for sure. Personally I don't think you are likely to have a significantly worse experience at Kaiser than you would with the average Dr, but you will also never have the _best_ experience. You do have to know when to be pushy and when to demand a different specialist.

That said, a lot of the reason the specialists costs are lower at Kaiser than other offices is because they don't all have their own little office and staff. Many specialists in the US are expensive because they have to have a secretary and an accountant, etc. At Kaiser they are just part of the system, so the costs look a lot lower.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#67

Post by chachachoney »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #23

You know, I've recently seen here on HN complaints about "product substitution" at Amazon - getting, not what you ordered, but something that Amazon thinks is equivalent. I'm not sure medical supplies is where you want that to happen. I'm therefore not sure that the comparison of price to Amazon is fair. Note well: Yes, hospitals also gouge you. I am not claiming otherwise.

Regulations criminalizing "product substitution" for healthcare products and foods are also in order.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#68

Post by danans »

I have very good insurance by US standards through my FAANG employer. My son recently got a full body reaction to poison oak exposure. No hospitalization, just a couple dermatologist visits, 30 minutes each.

After insurance paid its portion, I got a bill for $800 in out-of-pocket charges.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#69

Post by smsm42 »

sprucely wrote: post #39
narrator wrote: post #21

This is why I like Kaiser so much. If you make it to a Kaiser emergency room, and you have Kaiser health insurance, you are not going to get an out-of-network surprise bill. Everyone at Kaiser works for Kaiser and is paid a salary by Kaiser and the Kaiser hospital is the only one that bills you.

Kaiser is great for critical care and general practitioner stuff. But they do most of their cost-cutting in specialty care; the stuff that is rare or tends to not be easily diagnosed while having a major impact on patients' quality of life. Just lookup lawsuits and Kaiser mental health.

Same experience here: routine care is ok, emergency care is great, hospital also pretty good, but trying to get them to refer you to proper specialist and figure out what's wrong when you yourself don't know it (e.g. not a cold or broken leg when it's obvious but kinds of conditions where you may need to ask several specialists to figure it out) is a long uphill battle and they are very reluctant to cooperate. It's a bureaucracy which likes doing what they know and hates complex cases and exceptions.

Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200

#70

Post by [deleted] »

brink wrote: post #4

I just got an itemized bill today for a minor fall I took a couple months back.. On top of the nearly $6k in other charges from the hospital, they charged $531 for one dab of superglue or "liquid stitches" on my forehead for something that would have healed by itself. One of my friends died two years ago from pneumonia. He didn't go to the hospital when symptoms first started because he was afraid of the bills that w…

[deleted]
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