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Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

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Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#831

Post by Sammi »

hattmall wrote: post #802
ksclarke wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole time I was reading this, as someone from the U.S., I was wondering what country the writer was from, because it sure as #$@! wasn't written by someone in the U.S. When I got to that part, I was, "Oh. Okay. That makes sense."

Realistically it's much more likely that someone in the US would be telling this story vs someone from Norway. Norway has only 50k births a year. The US has 3.6 Million, and >40% of those are 100% free to Medicaid recipients. So 1.4 million each year, meaning a story like this is about 28 times more likely to be told from someone in the US than Norway.

That is misuse of statistics if I ever saw it. You could count the people that are screwed in the US and also get a much larger number than in Norway. The US has a relative problem.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#832

Post by trinix912 »

15155 wrote: post #797
im_down_w_otp wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This helps with the denials how exactly? You can pay a lot of money in premiums, have a $0 deductible, and now OoP maximum, and still end up having claims denied.

Do you think countries with even the most coveted universal healthcare just approve everything blindly? Should everyone (anyone?) receive monoclonal antibodies, gene therapies, biologic medications? What criteria should be used to make these determinations?

> Do you think countries with even the most coveted universal healthcare just approve everything blindly?

Yes. Everything that they are trained and able to do here, is covered by the national insurance, at least where I live.

We never even have to explicitly ask them to approve anything, it's all automatic. You don't see the bill.

You might have to pay the difference for "nonessential upgrades", like a plastic cast instead of a normal one when you break your arm. Had to pay 5.00 EUR for that and it was the only time I had to pay out of pocket in my entire life.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#833

Post by nosianu »

bleepblap wrote: post #516
nxor wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are people ever allowed to criticize migration?

Sure, but it helps to not misrepresent the facts while you do it

Misrepresenting???

The costs DID increase.

I did not try to make a political statement, what happened here, anyway???

I have no idea what there is to defend - even if you assume they will all get high-paying jobs some ay, for the first few years costs will increase while they either learn the language, are not allowed to work (status pending), or get minimum wage jobs (food delivery and parcel services at least in my city now is dominated by immigrants).

Even with your most positive outlook, initially there will be lots more people and the same system (number of doctors), and the numbers of payers increases slowly.

I even wrote "but more so aging population", conveniently overlooked in this strange politicized discussion.

I am NOT against immigration!!! Don't make stuff up people.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#834

Post by lifestyleguru »

kwanbix wrote: post #51

Having lived in Europe 10 years (I am from south America), it is crazy that the rest of the world doesn't follow Europe's health coverage: everybody is covered, all the time, you can be covered either by public insurance (was my case) or private. There are no preconditions. Kids get covered for almost everything up until they are 18 or 21 (don't remember), drugs for adults is only 5 euro each. No matter the cost. And…

> Having lived in Europe 10 years (I am from south America), it is crazy that the rest of the world doesn't follow Europe's health coverage: everybody is covered, all the time,

Stop lying. It's trivial in Europe to end up without any health insurance even as a citizen, e.g. in Poland without employment and without unemployed status (the offices make it very difficult to register and keep the unemployed status).

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#835

Post by fooker »

t0mas88 wrote: post #654
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, you'll be billed the maximum out of pocket for your health insurance whether your little one is in the ICU for months or whether it was a easy delivery though, so at least birth is a predictable medical expense.

If you have health insurance... Which is not automatically a thing for many Americans, and it seems even more with current political trends.

Ah you don’t seem to understand the depravity of the modern American medical system. It’s not as bad in the way you think, and significantly fucked up in a different way.

If you do not have insurance, you tell them you don’t. They’ll give you a bill lower than what you’d pay as deductible if you had insurance. Or you just don’t pay…

This raises insurance premiums and reduces the quality of healthcare in a dystopian AF feedback loop.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#836

Post by lifestyleguru »

NotGMan wrote: post #135
kwanbix wrote: post #51

Having lived in Europe 10 years (I am from south America), it is crazy that the rest of the world doesn't follow Europe's health coverage: everybody is covered, all the time, you can be covered either by public insurance (was my case) or private. There are no preconditions. Kids get covered for almost everything up until they are 18 or 21 (don't remember), drugs for adults is only 5 euro each. No matter the cost. And…

This depends heavily on which EU country you are: some EU countries have great and cheap healthcare, others have shit and cheap healthcare with 6+ months of waiting time and you can't find even a personal doctor in the public system (which you are forced to pay anyway for).

I would say that maybe half dozen of countries across entire Europe have this stereotypical good quality public universal healthcare. Even Germany starts experiencing bottlenecks. God have mercy on you if you need help from doctors in Poland, Romania, or Hungary. You will wait, you will be humiliated, and you will pay a lot of money multiple times. Basically you need an assistance of healthy and capable person to guide you through the corrupted system.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#838

Post by im_down_w_otp »

terminalshort wrote: post #818
Turskarama wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything? No. But routine stuff will NEVER be denied. If your doctor thinks you need a scan, you're getting the scan. I have quite literally NEVER heard of someone in my country (Australia) going bankrupt from medical bills. It can happen but the rate is so low it's not something anyone ever worries about happening to them.

Routine stuff is never denied in the US either. I've never had one thing denied ever and I even have a weird condition that requires expensive testing to diagnose and even more expensive treatment (narcolepsy). The insurance companies will throw up annoying bureaucracy like prior authorizations, and made me switch medication to generic when it came out (reasonable) and then back from the generic to another brand name…

Never denied eh? Interesting.

I had an MRI denied for a partial pectoral rupture. Which was a routine diagnostic as a precursor to open shoulder surgery to determine the extent and location of the rupture to figure out if surgery was absolutely necessary and to prep a viable surgical plan.

I had to fight the insurance company with the assistance of both my surgical and non-surgical sports medicine doctors.

The good news though appears to be that I imagined the entire thing, because denials for routine things never happen.

Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k

#839

Post by mcherm »

terminalshort wrote: post #818
Turskarama wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything? No. But routine stuff will NEVER be denied. If your doctor thinks you need a scan, you're getting the scan. I have quite literally NEVER heard of someone in my country (Australia) going bankrupt from medical bills. It can happen but the rate is so low it's not something anyone ever worries about happening to them.

Routine stuff is never denied in the US either. I've never had one thing denied ever and I even have a weird condition that requires expensive testing to diagnose and even more expensive treatment (narcolepsy). The insurance companies will throw up annoying bureaucracy like prior authorizations, and made me switch medication to generic when it came out (reasonable) and then back from the generic to another brand name…

Odd that your experience would be so different from mine. I routinely experience denials.

To give an example, about 60 to 80% of the time, when I visit the dentist for a regular cleaning the charge is denied and I have to submit additional paperwork to convince them to pay it. I can't think of any more simple and basic procedure than that.

I have no idea why your experience with healthcare in the US is so much better, but I can assure you that there are many people whose experience is more like mine.

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