Why is the man's wife worried about being sent to collections? She owes nothing to the hospital, the dead man's estate owes money. Let the hospital line up with the other creditors. She shouldn't be paying her late husband's hospital bills out of her own funds.
Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
201–210 of 954 posts
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#202These exorbital numbers are due to government and voters not willing to regulate the industry and rely on free market instead, correct?
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#203The American Medical Association owns copyright to all the codes and their descriptions. They have an extremely restrictive and expensive licensing options and they strictly forbid training models with the codes. This month, the practice was called out ( https://www.help.senate.gov/rep/newsroom/press/chair-cassidy... ) so the Overton window may be opening. The AMA (a nonprofit!) clears ~$300M/year revenue from the co…
The codes are data. The restrictions are empty threats.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#204The American Medical Association owns copyright to all the codes and their descriptions. They have an extremely restrictive and expensive licensing options and they strictly forbid training models with the codes. This month, the practice was called out ( https://www.help.senate.gov/rep/newsroom/press/chair-cassidy... ) so the Overton window may be opening. The AMA (a nonprofit!) clears ~$300M/year revenue from the co…
Google tells me that the AMA made about 468 million last year in revenue. If they made that much from the codes it seems like they wouldn't necessarily pass the IRS Public Support test. (Unless somehow this licensing counts as "public support."
I seem to remember this test is why the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation exist, but I could be mistaken.
Edit: Seems that the AMA is a 501c6, which is a different kind of non profit.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing is the prices are all made up anyway. The hospital hallucinates prices, so they don’t blink an eye when an llm does the same.
We are self-employed in the US and buy our own high deductible plan on our state's marketplace. One of my family members needed a fairly routine planned surgery, so I went through the effort to try to determine in advance how much I would be billed. What a waste of time. My favorite was the hospital who told me the fee for a one night stay would be 73k. But, good news! Your insurance has a contracted discount that br…
The Surgery Center of Oklahoma publishes all their prices, and do not take insurance:
https://surgerycenterok.com/surgery-prices/
They're the pioneer, but there are other clinics like that.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine if the U.S. government gave out free smartphones to some segment of the population. Over the years, they’d get used to replacing their phones for the smallest reason — a scratch, a tiny crack, dropped it a little hard — because it costs them nothing. Some might even start swapping phones every month or every week. “Ah,” someone says, “but the government negotiates huge discounts with the phone makers since it…
We don’t have to imagine how Medicare works because it exists, so I don’t see the use of such analogies. I suspect that it’s mainly doctors who need to be more responsive to cost incentives as they’re often the ones recommending unnecessary tests or treatments.
My analogy is not with socialized healthcare but with the medicare scheme. Socialized healthcare works in lots of other countries due to a combination of rationing and (in the case of drug prices) prioritizing accessibility over R&D.
> I suspect that it’s mainly doctors who need to be more responsive to cost incentives as they’re often the ones recommending unnecessary tests or treatments.
Doctors would recommend fewer tests if their patients were more price sensitive, I think. I'm not sure a more direct route to making doctors price sensitive when they are on the provider-side, why would they want you to utilize less? There probably also needs to be malpractice/tort reform in the US.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#207> Long story short, the hospital made up its own rules, its own prices, and figured it could just grab money from unsophisticated people.
America in a nutshell.
To be fair, I'm taking this whole twitter thread at face value.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
A large portion of the US economy is based on this entire grift pipeline (settling before getting to court). And it's very costly and pushes up insurance costs and costs in general for everyone else.
When people talk about government inefficiency, I always think of how prevalent these kinds of shenanigans really are. I think they are more costly than inefficient government.
The private sector is more efficient at extracting a profit. That doesn't mean they will be better at providing a service, however.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don’t have to imagine how Medicare works because it exists, so I don’t see the use of such analogies. I suspect that it’s mainly doctors who need to be more responsive to cost incentives as they’re often the ones recommending unnecessary tests or treatments.
My analogy is not with socialized healthcare but with the medicare scheme. Socialized healthcare works in lots of other countries due to a combination of rationing and (in the case of drug prices) prioritizing accessibility over R&D. > I suspect that it’s mainly doctors who need to be more responsive to cost incentives as they’re often the ones recommending unnecessary tests or treatments. Doctors would recommend few…
I edited my post to say Medicare shortly after your reply (sorry). But if there’s evidence that Medicare is especially profligate with unnecessary tests and treatments then you should give that evidence, rather than arguing by strained analogies.
Re: Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
#210AI is finally leveling the playing field on all those long and confusing documents that were designed to make regular people give up and pay whatever