111–120 of 372 posts
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…
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Talk to me when you get a $4000 bill for 2 hours in ER where the actual doc saw you for 5 mins and then the nurses did band-aid and over the counter burn ointment. This with Insurance (biggest mafia). AMerican Healthcare system baby!!
Counter point, why did you even bother going to the ER if that is all that was required? That solution doesn't really scream "emergency" and seems like a waste of their time and resources...
Some ERs don't always provide the level of care that they should, some doctors/insurance companies require patients to go to the ER for anything they need after office hours, and sometimes there's a need to be seen for something because of perfectly reasonable and valid concerns that it might be more serious than it ultimately ends up being.
While it's possible that the commenter's visit to the ER was a "waste of time and resources" I don't think it's fair to assume that from what was said.
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…
Talk to me when you get a $4000 bill for 2 hours in ER where the actual doc saw you for 5 mins and then the nurses did band-aid and over the counter burn ointment. This with Insurance (biggest mafia). AMerican Healthcare system baby!!
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Talk to me when you get a $4000 bill for 2 hours in ER where the actual doc saw you for 5 mins and then the nurses did band-aid and over the counter burn ointment. This with Insurance (biggest mafia). AMerican Healthcare system baby!!
A long time ago, I was once charged for being browbeaten into entering a social security number on a keypad by a belligerent ER security guard at a hospital. Didn't even see anyone, but still charged.
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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.
None of that stuff would be possible without government. It's a statism run amok. It's the same story every time. Something works relatively OK (US health care before 20 century big-gov), huge changes to incentive structure and overheads are introduced by statists ignoring higher order effects, everything goes downhill, statists blame capitalism. Let me legally not have insurance, pay anyone in cash for my health car…
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…
Back in 2020, my son needed a Covid test for some event related to school. We called his doctor's office and made an appointment for the test. We showed up for the appointment, and we had to wait an extra 20 minutes because the doctor was late, only to be told "we don't do that testing". Then got a bill for $100 for a doctor's appointment.
Fucking. Ridiculous.
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That's the problem. The doctors should form employee owned co-ops and be sure profiteering administrators and suits aren't the ones running things.
That is basically scenario #2 (which is common), but for whatever reason they haven’t been very successful at pushing back against some of the changes that cause these issues. I don’t have much insight to offer there since I’m not at the negotiating table there.
I've been playing with the idea for a while that any time a company uses its name, it has to disclose its ownership (first the company at the top of the chain, then the ownership structure of that company). So like for example the company name "Gerber" would have to always be coupled with "owned by Nestle, a publicly traded company.", and "Dave Franklin, a Dentist in your Community You can Trust" would have to be coupled with "Owned by Private Equity Incorporated, mostly owned by pension funds".
This would make it easier to keep track of if the same company is just screwing you over and over again with different faces, while still allowing some value to remain to brands that are consistently good for customers.
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Typically, when you are talking to a lawyer, you have signed a contract, paid a retainer, and have an explicit hourly rate negotiated for interactions with that specific firm.
Yeah, and typically when you do the same with a doctor the fee you pay has been negotiated with your insurance provider. This is no worse than anything else billing-related in healthcare.
I don't think I've ever seen a lower bar.
I don't mind paying for my Dr's time. If my insurance starts doctor blocking by making me chat with an AI first AND charging me for that? No, that's not going to be acceptable.