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She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

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Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#61

Post by tomrod »

consz wrote: post #18
LanceH wrote: post #7

Every interaction I have involves checking out, standing before a sign that says, "all fees must be paid at time of service." I pay then, then months later get more bills to be paid well after the time of service.

As far as I can tell, this is the correct way to handle this? I haven’t paid attention to any medical bills sent in the mail since I started working 15 years ago (I generally pay what they ask at the point of service), and I’ve never noticed any consequences (no denial of service anywhere, has never shown up in any way on my credit report, etc) — as far as my experience has shown, any bills sent after the fact are co…

If you are in the US, you are probably often paying for the wrong services as billing errors are quite common.

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#62

Post by theragra »

stusmall wrote: post #55
boringg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clarification. US health is great if you are employed, have a good income or are retired and on medicare. If you don't fall into those categories it is pretty tough

I have great insurance through my employer. Last week my spouse was suppose to go in for a surgery that multiple doctors made it clear she needed. We were on the books for months for the surgery. Insurance denied it the day before, throwing all our plans up into the air. The surgeon suggested getting a different surgery that wouldn't fix the problem. The idea is that when it didn't work it would act as evidence to co…

Insane ;(

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#63

Post by adamredwoods »

sydbarrett74 wrote: post #3

To the hospital systems and insurance companies, the confusion is a feature, not a bug. They assume most patients and their families will just knuckle under and pay what they're told they owe. Since the health care sector is one of the largest political donors, elected officials have little incentive to fix anything, so they nibble at the edges and call it reform.

Another technique is to pass the burden of proof onto the consumer. The hospital creates a new charge, and it is up to the patient to prove it should have been covered by insurance. For example, showing something like meeting your yearly out-of-pocket is a difficult task.

Sometimes it's up to the consumer to connect the two departments, insurance and the hospital billing, on the phone at the same time. Seems simple but the wait time between the two parties is high, and either one of them will drop off mysteriously.

If the bill is in dispute for too long, you will be sent to collections, and have your credit score degrade.

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#64

Post by orwin »

varjag wrote: post #14
rwmj wrote: post #4

I really don't understand why the US doesn't have a grown up healthcare system. Do you just not see how much better healthcare is in the rest of the developed world?

If you can afford it the healthcare in the States can be quite good. And there's a massive number of Americans who can afford it. I can't say off the cuff what share of the population is that but Americans being ever on the verge of bankruptcy is mostly a cliche.

I mean, in France we have a 'life expectancy' metric (82.5) and a 'life expectancy with good health', which is on average, the age someone born in 2023 will reach before getting daily pain or start loosing independence. The number is 76.5 year old (10th in Europe).

What's 'funny' is that our life expectancy with good health match USA life expectancy this year.

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#65

Post by tomrod »

stusmall wrote: post #55
boringg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clarification. US health is great if you are employed, have a good income or are retired and on medicare. If you don't fall into those categories it is pretty tough

I have great insurance through my employer. Last week my spouse was suppose to go in for a surgery that multiple doctors made it clear she needed. We were on the books for months for the surgery. Insurance denied it the day before, throwing all our plans up into the air. The surgeon suggested getting a different surgery that wouldn't fix the problem. The idea is that when it didn't work it would act as evidence to co…

Get the surgery, get notarized items from multiple docs, talk to a lawyer.

Healthcare insurance doesn't get to dictate your healthcare directly. They aren't doctors, and open themselves up to liability if we don't push back.

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#66

Post by soco »

varjag wrote: post #14
rwmj wrote: post #4

I really don't understand why the US doesn't have a grown up healthcare system. Do you just not see how much better healthcare is in the rest of the developed world?

If you can afford it the healthcare in the States can be quite good. And there's a massive number of Americans who can afford it. I can't say off the cuff what share of the population is that but Americans being ever on the verge of bankruptcy is mostly a cliche.

The case presented by the article is of an American who can afford it, yet I would still call it legalized abuse. Just like the other cases here in the comments, none of them of Americans on the verge of bankruptcy. And either way: the real possibility of getting bankrupted by your health bills signals systemic disinterest towards the (even when poorer) tax-payers. Maybe you agree with it, state models can be different and I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to each, but at least let's call it for what it is.

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#67

Post by drewg123 »

The worst experience I've had is one where I interacted with a provider, I paid my co-pay, they billed my insurance, my insurance paid the remainder, and it seemed to be done. Roughly a year later, the insurance company audited the bill, determined that the provider coded something wrong, and (somehow) took back their money. So the provider turned around and billed me 18 months later.

I called the provider, who had no clue what had happened. The insurance company finally told me that they reversed the charges, and told me I was not responsible for the bill, and the provider had to generate a correct bill. That was the last I heard of it, and I'm still expecting a several thousand dollar bill to show up in the mail..

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#68

Post by soco »

orwin wrote: post #64
varjag wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can afford it the healthcare in the States can be quite good. And there's a massive number of Americans who can afford it. I can't say off the cuff what share of the population is that but Americans being ever on the verge of bankruptcy is mostly a cliche.

I mean, in France we have a 'life expectancy' metric (82.5) and a 'life expectancy with good health', which is on average, the age someone born in 2023 will reach before getting daily pain or start loosing independence. The number is 76.5 year old (10th in Europe). What's 'funny' is that our life expectancy with good health match USA life expectancy this year.

Maybe because on average in USA you die from your first illness. Yes, I'm sarcastic.

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#69

Post by AmericanChopper »

causi wrote: post #49
AmericanChopper wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but what could you have gotten if you paid as much there as you pay in the US? If you ignore the fact that I was already paying substantially more for it with higher taxes, the answer is still nothing. Countries with public healthcare don’t have expansive private healthcare systems, and nowhere in the world has a healthcare system that offers the level of service that the US system does. For example my sister was g…

The maternal mortality rate for the US is 4.7 times higher than New Zealand's. The infant mortality rate is 61% higher.

I could also cherry-pick some statistics to try prove a point. But the point I’m actually making is that the healthcare I had access to in the US was far better than the healthcare I had access to in New Zealand (or anywhere else), regardless of how much I was willing to pay.

Complaints about systemic issue of healthcare costs in the US are perfectly valid (and there are other somewhat unique problems with it as well). But are completely seperate from the fact that the best healthcare facilities, and most qualified healthcare professionals in the world are generally located in the US.

Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money

#70

Post by russdill »

boringg wrote: post #43
rwmj wrote: post #4

I really don't understand why the US doesn't have a grown up healthcare system. Do you just not see how much better healthcare is in the rest of the developed world?

Clarification. US health is great if you are employed, have a good income or are retired and on medicare. If you don't fall into those categories it is pretty tough

No, it's great if you don't get sick. I'm employed and have a good income. I probably spend of average 4 hours a week (sometimes much, much more) on the phone with my insurance company, pharmacies, and doctors. I suppose I do have the alternative of just breaking down and paying everything out of pocket.
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