Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 372 posts

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

#21

Post by DaveExeter »

danielschonfeld wrote: post #10
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…

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]

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

#22

Post by strangattractor »

medmunds wrote: post #12

Every time my lawyer replies to my email, it costs me $35. At least. That's just for one or two line responses. Anything that requires research or (gasp) looping in a partner gets a lot more expensive, very quickly. This doctor sounds like a good deal.

$750 dollar office visit for a GP for 20 minutes no procedures performed ($2250 per hr) sounds even better. Welcome to US healthcare.

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

#23

Post by tonymet »

pydry wrote: post #17
tonymet wrote: post #9

I worked for a mature healthcare company and much of our marketing centered around healthcare provider surveys of doctors and nurses. The results were unsettling. Extremely high rates of burnout, typically due to administrative overhead. Horrifying medical error rates. Doctors should be compensated for the amount of time to send an email. Every other industry is capable of restructuring support to satisfy demand. It'…

>The real question is: what would it take for the healthcare industry to restructure itself to actually function? Strike the words "over 65" from the medicare bill.

that's a poor excuse. We can provide much better care for the elderly. the bulk of the operating cost growth in the past generation has been from administration.

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

#24

Post by cratermoon »

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]

Ah yes, of course, https://bitworking.org/news/2008/01/the-free-market-fairy/

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

#25

Post by rpearl »

medmunds wrote: post #12

Every time my lawyer replies to my email, it costs me $35. At least. That's just for one or two line responses. Anything that requires research or (gasp) looping in a partner gets a lot more expensive, very quickly. This doctor sounds like a good deal.

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.

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

#26

Post by danielschonfeld »

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]

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

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

#27

Post by smallmancontrov »

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]

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-...

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

#28

Post by dragonwriter »

pydry wrote: post #17
tonymet wrote: post #9

I worked for a mature healthcare company and much of our marketing centered around healthcare provider surveys of doctors and nurses. The results were unsettling. Extremely high rates of burnout, typically due to administrative overhead. Horrifying medical error rates. Doctors should be compensated for the amount of time to send an email. Every other industry is capable of restructuring support to satisfy demand. It'…

>The real question is: what would it take for the healthcare industry to restructure itself to actually function? Strike the words "over 65" from the medicare bill.

> Strike the words "over 65" from the medicare bill.

If you mean "universal single-payer", its worth noting that Medicare is very much not single payer and striking the population restriction for Medicare would not produce universal single payer (or even a single comprehensive plan for each individual, unless they are opting for privately-provided, publicly subsidized main insurance -- otherwise hospital [Part A], outpatient [Part B], and prescription drug [Part D] are separate insurance systems, and only the first two are public.)

Medicare is a particularly complicated implementation of partially publicly subsidized private insurance with an (incomplete) public option.

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

#29

Post by FireBeyond »

codegeek wrote: post #20
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…

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!!

I was in one hospital ER for a kidney stone, but they had no urology available, so they sent me via ambulance ("thankfully", as a paramedic, one of our company benefits was that if we were ever transported, they'd bill our insurance and waive any charges to us) to another hospital. Ambulance crew wheeled me into the ER bay, where a 'transport' gurney from surgery, was waiting, and I slid from one to the other, and was wheeled to pre-op.

At no point did the ER staff ever talk to me. At no point was I in a room. Or in an ER bed, hallway or otherwise. Just ambulance, transport, and then to pre-op.

But, because the transfer physically happened in the ER, that second hospital tried to bill my insurance for an ER visit to the tune of $2,800 which I appealed (successfully, at least).

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

#30

Post by bachmeier »

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…

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.
Post reply on HN