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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

#821

Post by ivolimmen »

throwawayffffas wrote: post #773
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…

European healthcare in my experience has capacity issues. Typically hospitals are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of patients. Waiting times for procedures are incredibly long. Where the system kind of shines is emergency care and long term illnesses, you go in and they save your life for free. For any other kind of treatment you are generally better off turning to the private sector in Europe. You are going to have…

Capacity issues are dependent on country. In my country (Netherlands) is it not that bad and you can easily switch Hospitals if there are queues for certain operations (that are not urgent).

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

#822

Post by dvrj101 »

lateforwork wrote: post #169

When UnitedHealthcare CEO was killed the public sentiment was that the health insurance companies are the bad guy—and the CEO deserved what he got. Then when stories like this come out we realize no, it is actually the hospitals. In reality the whole system is broken. Some people think single payer system is the solution but then when they talk to Canadians they realize that's not the solution either. I think the cor…

> health insurance companies are the bad guy

using AI to deny claims to maximize profit seems bad enough to me. More Luigi please.

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

#823

Post by dvrj101 »

dangus wrote: post #233
bloat wrote: post #201

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.

I don’t think she likely had to pay a dime and wouldn’t have faced any consequence besides a few months of annoying calls. Her credit score wouldn’t have even been impacted. I think given this story they totally messed up.

> besides a few months of annoying calls.

normalizing harassment and fraud, great

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

#824

Post by aqme28 »

like_any_other wrote: post #222
ecosystem wrote: post #74

The 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…

So what you're saying is the AMA is openly hostile to Americans.

It’s quite literally a cartel and it acts like one. They heavily restrict the supply of doctors, which means our medical costs are higher in favor of higher doctor salaries.

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

#825

Post by tsimionescu »

parineum wrote: post #772
tsimionescu wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very funny to see the US perspective here. $30-40k debt for a new graduate of an average university sounds crazy expensive to virtually everyone outside of the USA, I would bet. I paid $0 for my university, as did most of my colleagues, but even if I had had to pay the tuition, it would have amounted to $4k total for a 4-year bachelor's degree, or $6.5k total for a 6-year bachelor's + master's, at one of my coun…

> $30-40k debt for a new graduate of an average university sounds crazy expensive to virtually everyone outside of the USA That's the cost over 4 years. Most people will be able to get financial assistance to help pay for that and you easily manage to make 30k (or less with grants) in 4 years to pay for school. People making below 35k per year are going to pay practically zero taxes. You can work about 15 hours a wee…

There are aptitude tests of some kind and quotas for all good universities everywhere in the world. Harvard won't admit 100k students in a year if they randomly decide to join, nor will they accept a student without a stellar record (apart from legacy admissions, of course). And I would bet you whatever you want that you'll get a much better salary fresh out of college in Europe with a bachelor's from the Technical University of Munich (total cost: around $2000 if you're a citizen of an EU country), or TU Delft in the Netherlands (total cost: around $9000) than you will in the states with a degree from a random college that doesn't even have to bother with admissions tests.

Sure, if you're a brilliant young mind and can get into Harvard and qualify for assistance with your tuition, you're set for life, basically, in a way no EU university can match. But for the vast majority of the population, the outcomes are significantly better with the EU system.

Also note that the gigantic tuitions at US universities are actually a relatively recent phenomenon (and a similar thing happened in the UK). Even in the 50s and 60s, tuitions were much closer to the current EU norm.

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

#826

Post by onli »

tomhow wrote: post #793
86769928329709 wrote: post #761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Of course, far-left demagogues like you would advocate for flooding a country with uneducated criminals We've obviously banned this account. Please stop registering accounts just to keep breaking the guidelines. It's boring and a waste of everyone's time.

Thanks!

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

#828

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#829

Post by heavyset_go »

hattmall wrote: post #820
heavyset_go wrote: post #809

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medicaid isn't paying parents to not work. New parents will still have to worry about paying bills and the economy. When those parents die, any potential generational wealth for their children will be taken by the state to pay back the benefits they received from Medicaid.

>Medicaid isn't paying parents to not work. New parents will still have to worry about paying bills and the economy. That would be up to their job if they had one of course, but Medicaid does have some cash benefits and if you have a baby on Medicaid you typically get auto-qualified for TANF so that covers a lot of bills. >When those parents die, any potential generational wealth for their children will be taken by t…

I just looked it up and I'm wrong, estate recovery is for anyone at any age who is institutionalized and/or anyone over 55 receiving care. States can additionally choose care and populations from which they do estate recovery for their Medicaid programs.

All I know is a family member would get the Medicaid warnings about their estate each month in the mail.

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

#830

Post by bilekas »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #811
diob wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of folks are looking at the higher US comp but aren't correctly pricing in the long-term risk. You can be fine for years, but a single, major medical event can zero out those salary gains and lead directly to bankruptcy. It's a systemic flaw that isn't obvious until it's your turn to deal with it.

This is why insurance plans have out of pocket maximums. To prevent this exact issue. We can say whether those maximums are still too high (some really are), but the mechanism is there. The real issue is that most people don't have a rainy day fund to deal with such emergencies. And that they are too expensive anyway. There are 2 concepts you should always keep in mind. 1. Always avoid the hospital unless you are lit…

> Hospitals may sue you, depending on the state, but that carriers reputational risk

I'm sorry but if I need a hospital, my first thought isnt, "well how is their reputation".

I don't understand why people defend the insurance system in the US when you're already paying taxes. If it's not the responsibility of the government who you pay to take care of their people in an emergency then what are taxes for. It's like people just accept it because that's how it's always been.

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