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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

#81

Post by sjg007 »

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…

Federal law means your insurance has to pay for emergency room care. They do like to try to weasel out of it by saying you actually have a true emergency though. You can push back and get your state insurance regulator involved.

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

#82

Post by janesvilleseo »

I’m sure going to get downvoted for this but.... I just don’t pay my medical bills I pay my dentist and eye doctor bills since those are different. But I just let my insurance pay their part and I walk away from the rest. I haven’t had anything catastrophic yet. But have and do have bills in the 1,000s.

My credit score is great in the 740+ range.

I know big stuff they could take me to court or put a lien on my property. They haven’t yet.

It’s my little protest against all of this crazy healthcare prices and system we have here in the US.

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

#83

Post by cpursley »

danans wrote: post #56
cosmodisk wrote: post #46

Reading this in Europe.I'm sure if I'd go with article alone to my American colleague on Monday, he'd defent the system even if he'd have to die for it. Knowing he's a healthy 20something man with affluent parents that could potentially bankroll even a year's stay in a private hospital- I could understand it to certain degree, however I fail to understand why nobody really is up for changing this system,where million…

> however I fail to understand why nobody really is up for changing this system,where millions upon millions left woth no choice but to struggle anything but basic medical care. Plenty of people are up for changing it. It is quite literally the center of a huge debate at the moment in the Democratic primary, and there is a broad spectrum of changes being proposed, from Medicare for all with price controls to a slight…

> And the Republican party is currently avoiding discussing

Are you so sure about that? A republican president recently signed an executive order for more transparent pricing:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/24/7355785...

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

#84

Post by chooseaname »

opportune wrote: post #65
rwcemergency wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

At least one hospital was pretty aggressive:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/uva-has-ruined-us-heal...

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

#85

Post by djsumdog »

awb wrote: post #44

Just to pile on about how ridiculous medical costs are: After giving birth my wife was offered Ibuprofen. On the bill we were charged $80 for the 2 pills she took. This was before Obamacare. After Obamacare I twisted my ankle and the doctors insisted I wear a cheap fabric boot with stiff plastic plates while it healed over the next couple weeks. I asked how much it cost and they said $280. I took it off and refused i…

The ACA was a blatant failure in most states. It's still not affordable and large groups of people were never insured. ACA approved plans proved to be bogus. I wrote about this once before:

https://fightthefuture.org/article/returning-to-america-and-...

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

#86

Post by oppositelock »

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 went to the ER with chest pains seeming like a heart attack. They did an EKG, determined it wasn't a heart attack, then a blood test, which determined it was low potassium, and did a chest x-ray just in case. I received a saline IV and potassium pills as treatment, and went home after a couple of hours. The bill was about $18,000 for this. The insurance negotiated rate was about $1,500, of which I had to pay about $600, then over the next weeks, I received about 20 bills, each of which was for a large amount, bit the resultant patient "responsibility" was about $20 - all from shell organizations like "CA ER Physicians", or "Hospital Diagnosticians", etc. It's such a mess!

Another example was the birth of my child. We prepared for this by setting up an FSA, and having really good PPO coverage that year, supposedly, with a 10% copay. After all the billing shenanigans, my copay was about 30% and well above the out of pocket maximum. How does that happen? You can go to an in-network hospital, and be treated by a mix of providers, all of whom bill separately. Some will be in-network, others will be out of network, so you are in effect deducting against two out of pocket limits.

Medical billing is fraudulent. Medical insurance is fraudulent. These people are all acting in violation of tons of existing laws - I don't understand why this isn't prosecuted.

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

#87

Post by yumraj »

This is identical to what had happened in my case, the patient was my son who had fractured his arm.

Had taken him to Stanford Emergency, he got a a cast and a really cheap sling.

Received a bill from a Texas based company, don't remember the name, for about $200-$300, for the sling. Looked online, there were bunch of BBB reviews about this, including about calling them where the issue was settled. Same sling on Alibaba.com was $1-$2.

I called them up. I was told we were out-of-network for the sling, even though Stanford hospital was in-network. However, since we were in CA, we are kinda protected if we don't know this (in/out of network) in an emergency room.

I had the option of asking Stanford and insurance company to refile, or pay them $20 (from original invoice of $200-$300). I paid them $20 to settle the claim.

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

#88

Post by sjg007 »

jmugan wrote: post #41

Some states have price gouging laws to keep people from being taken advantage of when they are in a vulnerable state, you can't charge $30 for a gallon of gas after a hurricane, I don't understand why hospitals are any different.

That'd be a good argument to try. It would probably work.

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

#89

Post by Ididntdothis »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #40
ericd wrote: post #2

We had a call with someone who works on the pricelist/chargemaster for a major metro hospital recently, they set their prices by taking the Medicare reimbursement rate, and multiplying by 8.

If any other business tried billing people like hospitals and doctors do, people would go to prison.

That’s what i don’t get. A lot of the billing is clearly fraudulent. They routinely bill for treatments that never happened or for drugs that were never given.

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

#90

Post by hurrdurr2 »

oppositelock wrote: post #86
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 went to the ER with chest pains seeming like a heart attack. They did an EKG, determined it wasn't a heart attack, then a blood test, which determined it was low potassium, and did a chest x-ray just in case. I received a saline IV and potassium pills as treatment, and went home after a couple of hours. The bill was about $18,000 for this. The insurance negotiated rate was about $1,500, of which I had to pay about…

The lobby for insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital chains spend ungodly amounts of money to influence our political process. Once all the politicians are bought and paid for everything becomes kosher.
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