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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

#941

Post by wing-_-nuts »

_heimdall wrote: post #701
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you refuse Medicare at 65 under those same principles

That would entirely depend on the coverage I could get and how it compared to private. If Medicare is changed over the next few decades to look more like Medicare Advantage, aka Plan C, you couldn't pay me to deal with that. Edit: its worth noting that your question for whether I'd take medicare is a separate issue from my original point. If the existence of Medicare as it is today was on the ballot, I would vote to…

>If Medicare is changed over the next few decades to look more like Medicare Advantage, aka Plan C, you couldn't pay me to deal with that.

Ironic, considering that MCA is the more 'free market' of the two. Almost as if medical care shouldn't be for profit.

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

#942

Post by keybored »

guy_5676 wrote: post #935
keybored wrote: post #924

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was referring to this specific part of the comment I replied to: "Americans are averse to learning languages as opposed to other people". My response is a very accurate explanation of the reasons why this is a) an unfair way of looking at things, and b) not unique to Americans. What aspect of my response is uncharitable? I'm not saying things should be one way or another, just explaining how they are. Okay that’s…

No, it is not my interpretation. You can be willfully ignorant about this if you want, but you are just plain wrong. I'm talking about countries I grew up in and went to school with the locals with. I know the norms of the people I was around better then you. If you go to a place that views western culture through a looking glass and is trying to learn English to progress to a better point in life, English is cool, s…

Okay. All fair points. :)

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

#943

Post by tonymet »

keybored wrote: post #899
tonymet wrote: post #48

We suddenly woke up in the Kafka-esque purgatory of critical American healthcare billing. We’re in our 50s and had been perfectly healthy, then suddenly we got diagnosed with what will be over $500k in treatment over the next 12 months— and multiple millions for the foreseeable future. We have insurance, but many of the required procedures are “out of network” and there’s no way to tell (we have “the best” insurance,…

People discover that they are healthy until one day (when they live long enough) that they are not. > The point I’m trying to make isn’t to make you sympathetic. It’s to reinforce in all of the great technical minds here that healthcare billing is the most complicated spaghetti code cluster flock of a system that you’ve ever imagined. It’s far worse than any piece of software you’ve ever seen. And we all just accept…

i'm hoping we have some of those here in this forum, too

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

#944

Post by tonymet »

keybored wrote: post #899
tonymet wrote: post #48

We suddenly woke up in the Kafka-esque purgatory of critical American healthcare billing. We’re in our 50s and had been perfectly healthy, then suddenly we got diagnosed with what will be over $500k in treatment over the next 12 months— and multiple millions for the foreseeable future. We have insurance, but many of the required procedures are “out of network” and there’s no way to tell (we have “the best” insurance,…

People discover that they are healthy until one day (when they live long enough) that they are not. > The point I’m trying to make isn’t to make you sympathetic. It’s to reinforce in all of the great technical minds here that healthcare billing is the most complicated spaghetti code cluster flock of a system that you’ve ever imagined. It’s far worse than any piece of software you’ve ever seen. And we all just accept…

> People discover that they are healthy until one day (when they live long enough) that they are not.

the real challenge is that many diseases are asymptomatic and the diagnostics are also inaccurate. so there's no real way to tell if you have the disease

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

#945

Post by tboyd47 »

galangalalgol wrote: post #918
tboyd47 wrote: post #861

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The representatives are chosen by the Electoral College, not the popular vote. The U.S. is not a democracy.

Representatives are chosen directly by the voters of their districts and senators directly by the voters of their state. Electors are selected however their state decides, so yeah, the president isn't necessarily democratically chosen. Neither are judges. In practice though the electors are chosen based on the state vote. Saying the us wasn't a democracy is narrowing the definition of democracy quite a bit.

It's a constitutional republic. Democracy is optional. We'll either discover it now or discover it later.

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

#947

Post by queenkjuul »

blitz_skull wrote: post #479
egorfine wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This frame assumes several things: 1. Americans are not displeased with the situation. Ironically, I think this is one place most Americans agree there is a problem. The solution is the hard part because: 2. This presumes a drop-in solution where no one loses. This is where the fight is. 3. This presumes that democracies do what is logical or beneficial for the vast majority, which is a very naive view of democracy.

Have some more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-citizens-ice-arrests-detent...

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

#948

Post by blitz_skull »

queenkjuul wrote: post #925
blitz_skull wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This frame assumes several things: 1. Americans are not displeased with the situation. Ironically, I think this is one place most Americans agree there is a problem. The solution is the hard part because: 2. This presumes a drop-in solution where no one loses. This is where the fight is. 3. This presumes that democracies do what is logical or beneficial for the vast majority, which is a very naive view of democracy.

Just reminding you that American citizens continue to be detained https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/22/more-than-170-u-s-citize...

What does this have to do with my comment?

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

#949

Post by BobbyTables2 »

diob wrote: post #808
rootusrootus wrote: post #792

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use the difference in comp to buy a Cadillac level plan with zero deductible, zero out of pocket max. You won’t be going bankrupt.

Does such a thing exist these days? If so I can't find it. More importantly, it doesn't solve the real problem. You're still subject to the same system. Fighting for prior authorizations, staying in-network, and navigating all the other administrative friction. More than likely they'd find a way to make you go bankrupt rather than pay up. That or deny till you die.

In my experience (lately), the cost difference between a zero deductible plan and the high deductible plan is about the out-of-pocket max of the latter. Pretty much a wash.

So high deductible it is! Only met the out of pocket max once and it was glorious.

Before Obama, the zero deductible plans were only slightly more expensive than the high deductible plans. (Just an observation)

Seems crazy I was able to make an appointment directly with a specialist and only pay the copay back then…

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

#950

Post by DesiLurker »

brightball wrote: post #754
chrisgeleven wrote: post #245

I fought insurance over this past summer after they declined covering a life saving surgery for my 6-year-old child at the last minute. We were in despair that my child's life was at risk each day we waited because of insurance incompetence. ChatGPT literally guided me through the whole external appeal process, who to contact outside of normal channels to ask for help / apply pressure, researched questions I had, hel…

In that same vein, I used a public adjuster once after a small electrical fire torched a room in my house. The insurance adjuster was great, his manager was awful and made a difficult experience much worse. Without getting into details, the moment I realized that he was being intentionally obtuse I started looking into options. First contacted an attorney who essentially said, “Yes, I can do it but I’m going to cost…

thank you for this comment, learnt a new defensive trick today.
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