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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

#241

Post by mikepurvis »

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…

And yet, Canadians and others come into these discussions talking about how sane and reasonable our system is, and invariably someone immediately jumps in with "yeah but at least we have CHOICE here instead of having to appear before DEATH TRIBUNALS and then going on INFINITY WAIT LISTS."

Oh, America, you will never change.

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

#242

Post by code_sloth »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #223
lopmotr wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, Americans keep complaining about the same problems with their government over and over again - particularly lobbying, and yet every election they nearly universally reject all their concerns in favor of tribalism and vote for the same two parties that are responsible for everything they don't want, or nobody at all, which has the same effect. Wouldn't it be fun if whenever somebody criticizes their g…

“People rationalize it by saying that voting for a 3rd party is "wasting" their vote,” I guess I am stubborn but I will never vote for one of the two big parties. However it would be great if smaller parties got some kind of representation in Congress. It seems ridiculous that in the 90s Ross Perot got 20% of the vote but that resulted in zero representation.

There's an ideal world we want (that might never happen) and there's the real world. We live in the latter. Voting for the 3rd party is effectively voting one of the big 2.

Also, I find it curious that while our community has generally settled on "incremental improvement" approach, we expect different from our governments and want the "big bang" changes. Then we are surprised when things get worse.

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

#243

Post by privateSFacct »

abhorrence wrote: post #172
repiret wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not shell organizations, hospitals just outsource tons of stuff, frequently including physicians. (In fact, in California, hospitals may not legally employ physicians to practice medicine)

How does this work with institutions like Kaiser? Are their hospitals not technically hospitals? Or are the physicians all technically contractors there?

California really makes it hard to have everything on one bill because no hospital can hire a doctor.

But businesses and some consumers do want things to be under one roof - no surprises on in vs out of network, they don't like separate bills from each doctor that sees them, easy referrals, etc.

Kaiser is sort of a funny workaround.

The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the Kaiser Foundation of Hospitals and The Permanente Medical Group = Kaiser Permanente

The win for the patient is everything in-network and under one roof. If you are in a Kaiser facility EVERYONE is basically in network (with the exception of some state mandated providers that have to go through their own state flows - yes, that's why sometimes you need to repeat info on forms even at Kaiser)

The win for doctors is you really don't have denied claims or the billing pain you might in private practice.

CMA I think has really fought these setups before, but now oddly (in part because of medical malpractice and EHR overheads etc) working for Kaiser isn't considered a dump job anymore.

Bad news, obamacare put demand through the roof at Kaiser (even though they are not the cheapest plan) so they are shortstaffed I think.

If you do or know anything about medical billing - medical providers probably hate it as much as you do. A patient with primary coverage through Kaiser and secondary through Medi-cal - just to bill Medi-cal for $40 - you could spend hours on that as you hoop jump.

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

#244

Post by ryantgtg »

goostavos wrote: post #218
oppositelock wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>then over the next weeks, I received about 20 bills I'm going through this now! It is completely baffling! I went to the ER, and then I received a steady stream of bills over a period of months. They were so numerous and so devoid of useful context that I began to worry that they were illegitimate. The billing process is absolutely insane.

For full years after we had a baby we’d get 1-2 $20 bills a month. And they could always be traced back to a specific appointment or procedure, so we didn’t argue. But yeah, it’s loco.

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

#245

Post by matthewaveryusa »

simplecomplex wrote: post #213
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…

Just a reminder for those reading: you don’t need to pay medical bills, nothing is going to happen except a bad credit report. Go to the hospital, let them bill you, and then throw the bills in the trash.

They can (eventually) garnish your wages. I wonder at what point they do that.

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

#246

Post by com2kid »

maximente wrote: post #156
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

most are still stuck in the loyalty type mentality buffered by things like patriotism and national anthems and flags for any event with >5 people and a TV camera. 50 years ago people had the same loyalty towards their companies, and look where that got US manufacturing workers. nowadays you'd be nuts to expect to stick with a company for 10 years. get yours and get out: others be damned. so it shall be with citizensh…

Last time I went to the ER I got an itemized bill in a week for $300 or so.

All medical imaging I've had done has had pricing given up front showing what they where going to bill the insurance company and what the insurance company was going to pay and what I'd have to pay.

My non-emergency visits have a $40 copay up front.

Only the nightmare cases get talked about.

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

#247

Post by IggleSniggle »

greggman2 wrote: post #219
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For one, probably because these stories are the exception? I know a bunch of people will probably tell me I'm wrong and I might be (haven't used the US health system in a 3 or 4 years since I moved out) but for most people their insurance just covers it (or medicade if they're old). Otherwise most people don't want to leave their friends and family Note: not defending the horrible system. Only suggesting that most pe…

Company provided insurance, only cost us $5k to have a healthy pregnancy followed by a healthy baby, with no special circumstances. This was the usual “negotiated” cost. Why not print $2mil for a yearly wellness check while you’re at it, and then give a generous 1.9mil discount? The whole system is absolutely positively bonkers. How much of my premium is going to professional negotiators for insurance, and how much of my hospital costs are going to professional negotiators for hospitals?

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

#248

Post by jacobmassey »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #133
zaroth wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple things you should know. First, there is no such thing as late fees or interest on a hospital bill. Second, if you have called to question the bill, they cannot send it to collections until they have fulfilled your reasonable requests for more information. If you really did just get the bill it will be several months (and several more copies of the bill sent to you) before a final bill would show up that woul…

First, there is no such thing as late fees or interest on a hospital bill. Sure, just like you can't charge extra for using a credit card in California as payment in most scenarios (you can get a cash discount though). There may not be late fees, but the hospital will absolutely offer to settle for a hefty discount if you pay ASAP. By the time you get something claiming "PAST DUE" the hospital may be less willing to…

That’s not necessarily true. They would rather get something than nothing.

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

#249

Post by etairaz »

Such a long article, and the reporter never bothered to talk to a doctor and get reassurance that indeed the hefty price of the sling is unjustified. This isn't journalism, it's gossip. Sling may or may not be overpriced. Amazingly, you can't tell from this 1000 worder
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