61–70 of 135 posts
so a whole story about a billing mistake, which they could have figured out without involving the news org?
“Billing mistakes” happen way too often in this country and the hospitals don’t fix them that easily.
Brazil here. A few years ago, my wife was bitten by a dog. We simply went to the neighborhood free healthcare clinic, the standard entry point to our free universal healthcare system. After a very short wait they cleaned the wound and administered the first rabies vaccine. We went back there for the next doses. All free of charge, and the only "paperwork" she needed to do was to present her national ID card. https://…
The USofA has an unbelievably shitty healthcare system.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's their incentive to reduce the cost? They make money as a % of care paid out (max profit is capped). More costs == more profits and the costs are just passed onto the people paying for insurance (both employees and employers)
In a normal competitive market a series of new entrants would come in and undercut the incumbents by charging 10% less than the competition, one after the other until a sensible price is reached. Why doesn't this happen? Also where does all that money even go? It's so insane.
Money goes mostly to the salaries of healthcare administrators and dividends for shareholders, with enough going to doctors and nurses to keep them from striking out on their own.
TIL Vacaville is considered Bay Area... that's a pretty far drive from SF.
Cow city. It's a shithole halfway to Sacramento. A woman crashed her car into my vehicle there. She didn't stop. A cop was right there and did nothing. I called 911. The county or city didn't have E911 properly configured with Verizon and couldn't get my location. This is how America works. Broken, lawless, and dysfunctional.
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Seems pretty remote chance to get rabies without being bit, but did you read the last paragraph? "The Aguilars wound up paying $3,546.64 out of pocket. The insurance company told us Wednesday that they "are reaching out to NorthBay Healthcare... to address these excessive charges."" The shot normally costs ~$600 USD. There is no way the insurance in the end will pay the $54k the hospital tried to get away with.
> United Healthcare still paid more than $58,000 for the couple's rabies treatment They did.
How is that legal? What is stopping the hospital from charging 200 million dollars for the rabies shots? If I hired someone to fix my plumbing and they wouldn't give me an estimate and then decided to charge me $20k/hr I don't think a court would honor that contract.
That's a shitty bill. It's also insane that US doctors and hospitals aren't required to post prices, keep prices reasonably within an allowed range, and are allowed to price gouge customers for however much they want without limit. In Redding CA, I ran across a woman with a nasal infusion pump tube taped to her face in a coffee shop. She was hurriedly collecting paperwork for a hearing across the street. It turns out…
I got charged $5000 for a 30-minute preventative echocardiogram (basically an ultrasound) that insurance was supposed to pay 100%. 20 emails later it's now at debt collectors, and I've contested the debt twice. I'm ready to appear in court if I have to. I'm ready to pay $8K in lawyer fees to get rid of this $5K bill because it's wrong. I just don't want this to impact my credit score because it's not my debt. I hate…
2018, I was on Medi-Cal (Medic-aid) and had a stress ECG, right heart catheterization, and 12-lead EKG when admitted to their cardiac unit for 3 days. Cost $0.
Like a third-world country: in America, you're better off being either totally penniless or a billionaire. If you don't have a balance sheet of $5 megabucks, your life will be miserable.
The advantage most European and other countries have under socialism is it means there's a minimum average quality of life everyone. Pay more in taxes but get a lot more in terms of a more dignified, healthier, and longer life free from the slavery of "gotcha!" gangster capitalism.
Brazil here. A few years ago, my wife was bitten by a dog. We simply went to the neighborhood free healthcare clinic, the standard entry point to our free universal healthcare system. After a very short wait they cleaned the wound and administered the first rabies vaccine. We went back there for the next doses. All free of charge, and the only "paperwork" she needed to do was to present her national ID card. https://…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hospitals have been required to post price lists for several years. https://www.cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency
It's meaningless unless you can get a price before you get services. The trouble is even if the price list says $500 for something, they'll charge you $8000 for "general classification" and $2000 for a Tylenol. I have a remote heart monitor at my bedside that, upon pressing a button, wirelessly retrieves data about arrythmia incidents from my implanted defibrillator and sends any incidents to the hospital. Every time…
Come in unconscious and bleeding out from a car wreck: "No, no, no.. take me to the other hospital with lower prices. And I don't want $100 acetaminophen."