quote:

Originally posted by 45 Cal:

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
and it's not just a single bill for the hospital. No, you're getting a separate bill for every doctor who even stuck his head in the door of your room, even if you don't remember seeing them.

That happened to me,came by an open door of my room as I was recovering from kidney stones.
He said [how are you doing] I said [sore]
Billed me a month or so later after insurance and co pay was done.

Similar incident with me in the ER in 2011. I told them to pound sand. Turned me over to a collection agency. After the second phone call I confirmed the agency's address. I told them that if they called me again I would come see them and we could work this out in person. No more calls. Fast forward to 2016. First agency sells out to another so it started over. They dinged my credit score but BFD, I'm not going to be borrowing any money anyway. I don't screw people in my business so consequently I avoid being screwed as often as I can.

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Originally posted by 45 Cal:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by 45 Cal:

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
and it's not just a single bill for the hospital. No, you're getting a separate bill for every doctor who even stuck his head in the door of your room, even if you don't remember seeing them.

That happened to me,came by an open door of my room as I was recovering from kidney stones.
He said [how are you doing] I said [sore]
Billed me a month or so later after insurance and co pay was done.

1. Find his office address.
   
   
2. Stop in and say "Good Morning, how are you today?"
   
   
3. Send him a bill.

He would pay me just as I paid him,$400 + I suppose he needed to send money to India

What day of the month was this? Maybe he had a boat payment coming up.

A doctor and a lawyer were talking at a party.
Their conversation was constantly interrupted by people describing their ailments and asking the doctor for free medical advice.
After an hour of this, the exasperated doctor asked the lawyer,
"What do you do to stop people from asking you for legal advice when you're out of the office?"
"I give it to them," replied the lawyer, "and then I send them a bill."
The doctor was shocked, but agreed to give it a try.
The next day, still feeling slightly guilty, the doctor prepared the bills.
When he went to place them in his mailbox, he found a bill from the lawyer.

The reason we hear about the $100 aspirin tablets is because insurance companies reimburse so poorly. The problem is that the poor bastard without insurance is expected to cough up the $100 and they will pursue him into bankruptcy over it. We will never have "affordable" healthcare in this country as long as the insurance companies and the drug companies have free rein. Imagine what a sweet deal the insurance companies have. They get to decide both their income (premiums) and their expenses (payouts to doctors and hospitals). What other business has that sweet a deal?

No cost controls. As I do tax returns I am astounded by income in the medical field:

1) Medical Sales - $200,000 to $500,000 a year
2) Physicians - $120,000 to $ 250,000 a year
3) Dentists with sole practice - $250,000 a year working 4 days a week

quote:

Originally posted by Anush:
Dentists with sole practice - $250,000 a year working 4 days a week

Now you have made me curious. Is that what the practice bills (gross sales), or is that the personal compensation (salary or equivalent) that the dentist receives from the practice?

One of the many reasons health care is so expensive is that many of the normal things that allow costs to be factored in are gone. Like knowing what something will cost you before you make a purchase decision.

Imagine if paying for haircuts worked like medical bills.

You'd go in for a haircut, pay a small amount to the cashier at the end, and head home looking less like a haystack than before, and happy.

Then, the barber shop would make up and send you a notice that looks like a bill - but saying "DON'T PAY" - telling you they billed your hair insurance company for sitting in the waiting room, use of the barber chair, the scissors and trimmer fee, the shaving cream and hair tonic.

Then your hair insurance company would send you a notice, saying how much they allowed the barber shop to charge for all that, and how much of that they themselves sent to the barber shop to cover.

Then your barber shop would send you an actual bill, factoring in what the insurance company paid them.

Then your barber himself would do the same thing as the barber shop, but billing for the actual barbering.

It's only then, that you'd know what the trim actually cost you out of pocket, and you'd have to guess at how to factor in the cost of your 'hair insurance premium.'

If this sounds ludicrous, that's because it is.

I had 12 stitches done in my ankle several years ago and got a $5k bill. My wife spent a day at the hospital tracking down someone that could actually break the bill down and explain it. After the dust cleared, we found out they had double charged us for Dr and triple charged us for the facility fee. I was shocked that all of the material charges were perfectly reasonable. Our revised bill was closer to $1200

One thing that really gets me is how is it legal/ethical to charge me a Dr's rate when I only saw the PA? You can bet your ass that my clients would say hell no to billing 40 hrs of Engineering Tech at a Project Manager's rate. I don't think that the excuse of "Well, he was under my supervision" would cut it.

quote:

One thing that really gets me is how is it legal/ethical to charge me a Dr's rate when I only saw the PA? You can bet your ass that my clients would say hell no to billing 40 hrs of Engineering Tech at a Project Manager's rate. I don't think that the excuse of "Well, he was under my supervision" would cut it.

I agree, but it is common practice. I am MORE concerned about the level of expertise than the reimbursement. Unless it is a simple matter I WANT to see the physician.

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2) Physicians - $120,000 to $ 250,000 a year

That is an amazingly low number to toss out there. Pediatricians and family practice, perhaps, but not specialists or even ER docs. Heck, CRNAs are above the lower end of that range.

MGMA stats from 2015

quote:

Is that what the practice bills (gross sales),

Taxable Income


"but not specialists or even ER docs."

$275,000 for a specialist


My sample size is very small

BILL OF THE MONTH:

https://khn.org/news/bill-of-t...nts-17850-drug-test/