201–210 of 370 posts
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.
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 was once charged $1,500 for a doctor to talk to me (without ever touching my physical body) to “prescribe” me over the counter motrin....
I then questioned them on this and they said “well it was a prescription” : i said you never even physically touched me. “So im going to tell you what this was worth to me: $50”
They then said “okay we will charge you $297 for the visit”
I said “you made me wait over 45 minites before even seeingg me, at 9:00 pm when i was the only person in the waiting room. NO; im am going to charge YOU $50 for my time wasted”
The dropped the entire bill completely.
Good samaritan hospital in los gatos ca.
(Where my grandmother worked for decades, and after el camino hospital bout them and i was the technology designer for their upgrade)
You can negotiate codes with hospitals.
Source: i have built more than ten hospitals; el camino, good sam, ucsf, nome, sequoia , zucks sf gen, etc...
Dont let their coding depts fuck with you - take a stand.
Why medical tourism not a big thing ? All incidents mention could be cure in India at nice competent hospitals at fraction of this bill including air travel. What is the biggest problem in this space ?
I would definitely fly somewhere for a planned surgery.
Has anyone here ever worked in this industry? I'm curious what the justification for these prices is? I can't imagine it is quite the scrooge mcduck caricature where the people reaping these profits are literally trying to defraud people. I would love to talk to a health insurance insider or something and ask them to justify this stuff.
Mostly our healthcare system is completely fucked and we should all feel bad.
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 proper…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I don't understand why this isn't prosecuted. Simply examine the way the issue was presented by frontrunners in the supposedly liberal party of the United States on the debate stage yesterday. Two candidates call for true universal coverage, a few call for a public option but brand it as universal coverage to confuse viewers, and several (with moderator and broadcast sponsor support) outright mislead by stating that…
I strongly support the Warren/Sanders universal healthcare plan, but in terms of optics, I don't actually see what the point is to making “duplicate coverage” private insurance illegal. It invites FUD and provides a convenient bogeyman while being entirely irrelevant in practical terms. If the government is providing comprehensive free healthcare to all, why would anyone need duplicate private health insurance? There…
If private insurance was allowed (in Canada), the elite would have expensive plans that had physicians only caring for a few people each, and so on. This worsens the care in the general system but more importantly, it splits the interests of the elite from the general public.
> they dispense the product on Breg’s behalf and Breg follows up with its own bill.
My intuition tells me that this relationship may have generated a little side hustle for the hospital, which if it really occurred would be extremely illegal. That reporter should dig a little more.
Has anyone here ever worked in this industry? I'm curious what the justification for these prices is? I can't imagine it is quite the scrooge mcduck caricature where the people reaping these profits are literally trying to defraud people. I would love to talk to a health insurance insider or something and ask them to justify this stuff.
There's not much incentive to create a sensible pricing structure because very few patients actually pay the posted prices. Most revenue comes from the government or insurers, and neither of them give a fuck what you charge for a sling. Hospitals have limited resources, and dealing with insurers is a big enough operation as it is. Most chargemasters are created by multiplying acquisition cost or Medicare rates by some absurd number (typically 8-10) and calling it a day.
Frankly, I see this whole thing as a red herring. I get why people get upset about it, but if you ended this practice then the money would just shift somewhere else. Hospitals are mostly non-profits with small margins, so the money has to come from somewhere. Instead of charging 10 times cost for everything they would just dump it all into a generic fee. This kind of stuff isn't actually relevant to the core problem of why healthcare is so expensive in the US.
It's definitely not a scrooge mcduck caricature situation. Like I said, most hospitals are non-profits who post their financial statements online. You can probably go look at your local hospital's statements to see what kind of margins they're working with. There are exceptions, but I'd bet they're pretty low.
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…
A world where 100% of Americans are covered under the existing healthcare system is still a disaster because everything still costs so much between premiums, deductibles, copays and coinsurance. And on top of that, patient responsibility is still largely unknown until post treatment.
If you look at the cheapest Bronze plans on the Obamacare market, you're probably looking at $400/month for the premium with a $7500+ deducible for a single person. If someone is coerced into buying insurance and they can barely afford the premium, how is that something worth celebrating?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our first born came with a $42k bill. Hospital and doctor said we were covered by our insurance pre-auth, but come bill time apparently pre-auth was null and void b/c it was requisite on a negotiation that fell through. Each side had a different story and their representatives acted absolutely helpless. We were broke at the time we found out about the pregnancy and memories of the first two years of my boy's life are…
Why aren’t US citizens queuing up to emigrate? At this stage, it seems like the US is the “land of the free”, whereby “freedom” is defined as the ability to freely exploit everyone.
I agree, though, the masses are exploited (us included), and it’s troubling.