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More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

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Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#41

Post by leereeves »

smallmancontrov wrote: post #27
DaveExeter wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

So why is our healthcare twice as expensive as the countries who actually do have socialized health care? When is that competition going to kick in and bring down costs? https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...

If it were fully free market, there would be more competition. If it were fully socialized, the government would control prices.

Instead, our system is the worst* of both worlds. The government limits the supply to prevent competition, but allows those they've licensed to charge as much as they want.

*(That is, worst for patients; it's the best for profits)

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#42

Post by MR4D »

danielschonfeld wrote: post #26
DaveExeter wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Respectfully save me the Ayn Rand. Some of us live in the real world and not the political utopias of our minds.

I'm going to jump in here and offer up an Ayn Rand because you brought her name up.

Ask anyone who has a dog, preferably a big dog, what it costs for a vet visit.

Better yet, talk to someone who has had a sick dog. Something terminal, or possibly terminal. Costs are wayyy lower. Same x-ray, same imaging, many similar medicines. I've talked with vets, human doctors, and doctors who own dogs. They all come to the same conclusion:

Only ONE key difference - there is no insurance or government regulation involved (obvously stuff like taxes, basic health codes, licensing, but I think you know what I mean).

I'm more than happy to agree with you if you could show me a plausible explanation for this enormous disparity in costs.

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#43

Post by avgDev »

DaveExeter wrote: post #21
danielschonfeld wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American healthcare is the epitome of capitalism run amok. It’s terrible and the only thing worse than the exorbitant fees is the complete and utter lack of consideration to the patient’s time.

[flagged]

Tell me you don't know anything about healthcare without telling me you don't know anything about healthcare.

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#44

Post by AlienRobot »

CharlesW wrote: post #4

Here's American health care: • I needed refills for two prescriptions that I've been taking for years. This time, for opaque reasons, I needed to talk to a doctor first. • Fine, but I couldn't accommodate an in-person check-in. I chose a "video visit" that, due to logistics, I had to do while away from home. Because they were a half-hour late, I was effectively forced to do this from the couch of a Costco floor displ…

In my country (Brazil) it's illegal for doctors to require an appointment just to give a prescription. I see them doing it all the time anyway. It's sad.

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#45

Post by smallmancontrov »

hiddencost wrote: post #11
buran77 wrote: post #8

In some countries in Europe, if you have private insurance they'll pull off the "call charge" trick as often as they can. Need to make or reschedule an appointment? Make a call. Did some blood test and need the results? Call to get them. They call you to tell you they can't make the appointment and need to reschedule? You still get charged. If it's not a call it's a fake shot. Fake disinfection charge. And so on. The…

[flagged]

A user named "hiddencost" doubts that privatized healthcare follows its incentive to create hidden costs.

Chef's kiss.

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#46

Post by Matheus28 »

DaveExeter wrote: post #21
danielschonfeld wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American healthcare is the epitome of capitalism run amok. It’s terrible and the only thing worse than the exorbitant fees is the complete and utter lack of consideration to the patient’s time.

[flagged]

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone say something this wrong on HN. Calling the American health care system socialist in any way is laughable.

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#47

Post by sp3000 »

gnicholas wrote: post #14
CharlesW wrote: post #4

Here's American health care: • I needed refills for two prescriptions that I've been taking for years. This time, for opaque reasons, I needed to talk to a doctor first. • Fine, but I couldn't accommodate an in-person check-in. I chose a "video visit" that, due to logistics, I had to do while away from home. Because they were a half-hour late, I was effectively forced to do this from the couch of a Costco floor displ…

My doctor's office pushes really hard for me to set up a physical if I haven't been in recently and need prescription refills. This includes for allergy and asthma medication, which I have used as-needed since I was a child. This started happening around a decade ago; before that, it was never a problem to have the pharmacy call the doctor's office for the refills, and that was that.

The American sick care system is based around and incentivized to keep you a customer for life. I recommend people find preventative health and longevity specializing medical providers - they prioritize actual health and wellness.

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#48

Post by gnicholas »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #36

I think the ridiculous thing here is not the doctor charging but that all insurance doesn't cover it. I bet there are a ton of consultants and lawyers (and maybe some accountants) on HN and most of them will charge you for time spent replying to emails. Edit: inserted the word "all" before insurance to clarify my intent.

from TFA:

> Health plans covered the full cost of about 82% of claims, according to the Peterson-KFF analysis. Patients who shared the cost paid $25 on average.

I would be very curious to know if my insurance is paying for the useless messages that my doctor's office sends. I sure hope not — they are next to worthless!

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#49

Post by avgDev »

freeAgent wrote: post #40
danielschonfeld wrote: post #18

Every time the topic gets of healthcare comes up I always wonder how many doctors have tried themselves to interact with their own clinic (has to be their own) Trying to do simple things like: - Setting or getting an appointment. - Calling to sort out their office’s coding error that resulted in me getting an erroneous bill - Trying to get access to their portal or getting results for tests transferred in a realiable…

Trust me, they are all aware of this. The problem is that, for the majority of doctors now, they do not own or control their clinics. They are either: 1)employees of the health system or 2)partners or employees of a provider's group that essentially contracts with the system to provide doctors. The doctors themselves have no real control over how their clinics operate outside of contractual negotiations.

The doctors are just cogs in a machine. The problem is that if your compensation is $200k-$1000k why would really want to tackle the issue.

Specialists make so much money they can hire a personal assistants to handle all the annoying things.

I know several pharmacists, one is highly intelligent and she is the only one who wants to get out of the field because healthcare in the US is toxic and profit driven.

Re: More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

#50

Post by david422 »

There's a really interesting clip in the documentary "What The Health" where the interviewer attempts an interview with one of the doctors and gets rejected by the hospital PR person:

  Transcript:
  actually i understand that doctor said that you could film here today but
  51:04
  unfortunately that's not going to be able to happen i know that he advocates for patients changing their diets but the
  51:10
  hospital makes money off these surgeries and the reality is he does too so we can't do anything that's gonna
  51:16
  negatively impact the hospital so unfortunately you're not gonna be able to film here today
https://youtu.be/obx7cJtk3fE?t=3064
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