US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients • Hacker News Board

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#311

Post by simple_phrases » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #227

atmosx wrote: post #48

A good question would be what can be done to fix healthcare in the US ? My understanding is that most voters don't support universal healthcare. IIRC even Obamacare was labeled as controversial. Current model costs way more, the model is clearly broken, why there is no pressure to fix it? ps. I don't want to get political or anything by mentioning Obamacare. I'm genuinely curious because the problems of the current h…

My understanding is that most voters don't support universal healthcare. One part of our population does have universal health care: Native American tribes on reservations. It is perhaps the worst health care in the country, particularly if you get sick as the budget runs out ("don't get sick after June" is a documentary on the subject). If the United States is incapable of providing decent health care for a very sma…

Medicaid exists and is pretty great for those that have it.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#312

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:52 PM UTC

oauea wrote: post #220

lotsofpulp wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Gleevec was probably an order of magnitude cheaper or more for the Polish government than in the US: https://www.statista.com/statistics/312011/prices-of-gleevec... And doctors in Poland are probably not earning a few hundred thousand USD per year, and similar for nurses wages and all the other people in the healthcare chain. Quick googling shows wages might be an order of magnitude cheaper also. I assume healthc…

> but bottom line is healthcare costs more in the US because everyone earns more top to bottom in the US So there's more taxes available to absorb this cost. It's a self solving problem, in countries that have their shit together.

Depends how much tax the government collects and what the government spends it on. Obviously, the problem can be solved in a nation as wealthy as the US, it just depends what they want to give up to obtain it.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#313

Post by apta_ » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:53 PM UTC

programmertote wrote: post #268

trynewideas wrote: post #162

Some context: the clinic (technically named the Arkansas Cancer Institute, not the Arkansas Cancer Clinic as in the story) faced lawsuits in 2018-19 after more than 50 patients tested positive for an undisclosed bacterial infection linked to saline flushes on infusion ports.[1][2] The results of the lawsuit weren't reported, but the clinic closed in February 2020, about a year after the firm behind the suit pursued c…

Glad to see someone pointing out the context. Certainly this doctor and his family did a great thing by forgoing the debt owed by his patients. BUT, my wife worked and volunteered at a few private clinics around NY metro areas and I would wager that this doctor's clinic already makes a lot of money (2-3x that 650K) every year if not more. As an example, one of the primary care physician's clinic that my wife (who is…

> and I would wager that this doctor's clinic already makes a lot of money (2-3x that 650K) every year if not more.

Forgiving 650K is nothing to scoff at, no matter how much money is being made. God bless him for his charitable actions.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#314

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:54 PM UTC

pnutjam wrote: post #310

lotsofpulp wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Gleevec was probably an order of magnitude cheaper or more for the Polish government than in the US: https://www.statista.com/statistics/312011/prices-of-gleevec... And doctors in Poland are probably not earning a few hundred thousand USD per year, and similar for nurses wages and all the other people in the healthcare chain. Quick googling shows wages might be an order of magnitude cheaper also. I assume healthc…

Right on schedule, here comes someone to parrot all the debunked reasons the US can't do stuff everyone else in the world can do.

I offered an explanation for how one can get that kind of treatment in Poland and not in the US in its current state, not as a permanent dynamic. Obviously, if the US focused its resources on providing healthcare to its people in a similar manner that other nations have, they could achieve it.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#315

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:57 PM UTC

spaetzleesser wrote: post #248

lotsofpulp wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You keep saying "erroneously" but I'm not sure what you mean by that. "Erroneously" as in denying coverage for something that should be covered (per the terms of the contracts). It's unfortunate that you have to go through all of that when changing medications. I don't know the reason for it in your specific case, but I would hope it's not widespread fraud across all of those companies.

“I would hope it's not widespread fraud across all of those companies.” Assume it is. It’s the normal way of doing business. Deny things and hope that most people will give up.

If it is fraud, then it's not manifesting in outsize profits for insurance company. Almost all premiums go towards paying for benefits, and they are left with ~5% or less in profit. The executives are not earning outsized compensation compared to executives at other large companies, there is no army of people with FAANG salaries, so who is the fraud benefiting?

This is all public information per their SEC filings. You can drop the compensation for all the bosses down to zero and it wouldn't move the needle on how much more healthcare they could be providing the insureds.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#316

Post by bcrosby95 » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 7:33 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #298

bcrosby95 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my wife had surgery and insurance denied part of our claim, hospital billing said it was normal, and it usually doesn't get resolved until one of their lawyers sends a strongly worded letter.

Is it possible the hospital also has a tendency to over charge? For example, the data for Synagis indicates it only works to prevent RSV in a very narrow set of cases. It's a very expensive medicine. And it's vastly over prescribed based on the efficacy data, so a parent who is already emotional over their premature baby is going to be frustrated if/when the insurance company denies it. The doctor isn't going to into…

For my wife's surgery (gall bladder removal - supposedly one of the most common in the country) insurance paid the surgeon, and initially denied the hospital bill and anesthesiologist bill as medically unnecessary. After 8 months of back and forth and dozens of multi-hour-long phone calls insurance finally covered it all.

I don't really care whose fault it is, I shouldn't have to play phone tag with two powerful entities over the course of 8 months as they try to figure out if they're going to fuck me over or not. It's a huge waste of time.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#317

Post by unabst » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 7:39 PM UTC

Folcon wrote: post #79

unabst wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just changed my insurance to LA Care. The doctor they gave me was with UCLA medical. I called and they said they did not and never have accepted LA Care. I called LA Care. The lady said, "I really wish their clinics stopped doing that." She called the UCLA clinic with me on the line and sorted it out. I was then left to give them the rest of my info... At the last step when they asked for my ID, they insisted it wa…

Sorry, for those of us not in the know, what is it about La Care that provokes this response?

UCLA and Cedars-Sinai are both world class providers, but take little to no insurance available on Covered California. LA Care is a rare "public option" run by LA county. When I switched from Oscar to LA Care this year, I did so because both UCLA and Cedars showed up as "in network" for LA Care. And when they assigned a UCLA clinic physican down the street as our primary, I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. But I knew not to celebrate prematurely, and I was right. LA Care did pull through, and our appointment this morning went great. I'm still holding my breath until I see the bill and it's not wrong.

I checked the LA Care provider directory yesterday, and there were no Cedars doctors. I can only assume there's something up with that.

I had Blue Cross a few years ago, and I still have PTSD from the three way call between them and Covered California where their rep flat out contradicted an email they had sent me, even after I read it out word for word. She was also trained to not help me. This training is ass-backwards.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#318

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 8:42 PM UTC

bcrosby95 wrote: post #316

lotsofpulp wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible the hospital also has a tendency to over charge? For example, the data for Synagis indicates it only works to prevent RSV in a very narrow set of cases. It's a very expensive medicine. And it's vastly over prescribed based on the efficacy data, so a parent who is already emotional over their premature baby is going to be frustrated if/when the insurance company denies it. The doctor isn't going to into…

For my wife's surgery (gall bladder removal - supposedly one of the most common in the country) insurance paid the surgeon, and initially denied the hospital bill and anesthesiologist bill as medically unnecessary. After 8 months of back and forth and dozens of multi-hour-long phone calls insurance finally covered it all. I don't really care whose fault it is, I shouldn't have to play phone tag with two powerful enti…

[deleted]

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#319

Post by lotsofpulp » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 8:44 PM UTC

bcrosby95 wrote: post #316

lotsofpulp wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible the hospital also has a tendency to over charge? For example, the data for Synagis indicates it only works to prevent RSV in a very narrow set of cases. It's a very expensive medicine. And it's vastly over prescribed based on the efficacy data, so a parent who is already emotional over their premature baby is going to be frustrated if/when the insurance company denies it. The doctor isn't going to into…

For my wife's surgery (gall bladder removal - supposedly one of the most common in the country) insurance paid the surgeon, and initially denied the hospital bill and anesthesiologist bill as medically unnecessary. After 8 months of back and forth and dozens of multi-hour-long phone calls insurance finally covered it all. I don't really care whose fault it is, I shouldn't have to play phone tag with two powerful enti…

Yes, that’s why Kaiser is a nice model if we can’t get to taxpayer funded healthcare. It’s vertically integrated insurers and provider so there’s no in network and out of network and covered or not covered BS.

Re: US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients

#320

Post by pulse7 » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

hn2fast wrote: post #295

pulse7 wrote: post #204

It is shocking that this is news! This should be normal and expected behavior and not news!

No, this should never have to happen. Medical professionals are certainly well-compensated, but direct providers of care receive less than 15% of healthcare revenues. It shouldn't be expected for doctors to personally pay off medical debts, they shouldn't exist in the first place!

You are right! But I meant another thing: it should be normal that if somebody can not pay you back and that you have enough money, that you should forgive them...