SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge Update 9/27 - Negotiated - As I Negotiate Medical Bills I Realize Nothing Has Changed
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safe & sound |
Now I feel guilty. Of my three bills the anesthesiologist was the cheapest and also the first to offer the 10% off.  | |||
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Yikes! That sounds problematic. | |||
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| Little ray of sunshine  |
I am the most enthusiastic supporter of the free market you will ever meet. Really. But if they won't tell you the price, there is no actual market. Can't be. Price is the one way markets have to communicate. A colleague has been in the hospital business both as a lawyer to the industry and as an operator of medical facilities. He tells me you ought to be able to get them to take in the neighborhood of 30% off the stated charges, as a general rule. And docs are getting paid less and less by insurers. My son's father-in-law MD hasn't said how much less, but I have the strong impression that over the last ten to fifteen years, his income is down sharply and painfully. What is that? I don't know, but if it were 25% lower, I wouldn't be surprised. He talked one of his other daughters out of medical school. The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. | |||
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| Member |
He’s just supervising. But still charging. | |||
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| Member |
This was my experience. I had surgery and received a bill for both the anasthesiologist and his assistant. Apparently the doc put me under and the assistant handled things from there on. No one asked me if that was okay. | |||
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Be Careful What You Wish For... |
My medical gripes are getting to be as numerous as my traffic gripes. No one has any idea what anything costs. Doctor spends three minutes with you, PA spends five. Security checks at the airport get a better feel for my overall health than most docs. Waiting times measured in hours (yes, plural). Enormous bills that insurance ends up discounting. Treatment is always basic, nothing that should require what's actually being billed (I know I have a sinus infection, I know the exact prescription I need for it, there's no reason to charge $200 for me to wait an hour and a half before seeing the doc and then have him take one look up my nose and send me on my way). ____________________________________________________________ Georgeair: "...looking around my house this morning, it's not easily defended for long by two people in the event of real anarchy. The entryways might be slick for the latecomers though...." | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up  |
How about when you find out after the procedure that other doctors “assisted” and you have to pay for them. That happened when I had my miniscus repaired. | |||
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| Member |
Or how much their insurance premiums are. Years ago my wife did billing for an anesthesiologists and I was shocked by how much she brought in for her per month but even more shocking was what she had to pay in medical malpractice insurance premiums. | |||
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Member |
Set up a payment plan with minimal payments. They will be more interested in negotiating in a year or so. At least that has been my experience. _____________________ Be careful what you tolerate. You are teaching people how to treat you. | |||
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| Member |
I love the way health care organizations go on and on during their advertisements about how caring and compassionate they are. And how high quality their care and service is. All that horseshit ceases promptly when the bill comes in. Recent experience: I went in for an MRI after I was having some stomach issues. I checked in with the receptionist and she began to type in my info for treatment. As she was doing this, she dialed her phone and handed it to me, telling me that someone wanted to talk to me. It was the billing dept. Who said "we estimate your treatment will cost $$$. How would you prefer to pay"? I told them to bill me. No treatment was rendered, yet they wanted money up front based on their "estimate". Its not about care. Or healing. Its about money. And I suspect, greed too. End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles | |||
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MAC is your friend. | |||
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| Member |
Ain’t that the truth! | |||
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| Member |
They probably did on the informed consent documents you signed. | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up |
What about the doctors that want payment up front? I have left the ones that want payment up front. I have also left the doctors that are always late, the ones who see you 30-60 minutes after your appointment time. I'm not talking about the ones who have emergency surgery but the ones who always overbook and then spend 30 seconds with you and let the nurses do all the work. I had one doctor who was 90 minutes late, I had to get my ultrasound results or I would have never waited. I was fuming when he came in and I have never gone back. Their nurses know when they are behind, they could have the courtesy to call and offer to reschedule but they never do. | |||
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thin skin can't win |
You may be confusing factoring with standard collection agency practice in most medical groups/hospitals. While some hospitals will factor their bad debt for a %, most are simply turning it over to a collection agency with the same o/s balance but the agency getting a 25-40% fee on payments made. Also, most hospitals are ridiculously slow to this, you may be trying to out-wait a sloth and miss your 180-day window. That same inefficiency affect their ability to accurately report (or not report) accounts, so cutting it that thin you may have to unravel with credit reporting agencies if misreported. YMMV GLWS IWMWISLIGMG You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02 | |||
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| Member |
I wouldn’t count on this pushing you past your deductible. The bill I received from the hospital a couple of years ago for my emergency appendectomy was $19,000 (pre-insurance “discounts”). Not only did I not get anywhere near my $4,000 deductible, I owed somewhere in the $2,000 ballpark. People wonder why I am so hesitant to go to the doctor despite what would be considered good insurance through my company. It’s all of the bs outlined in this thread that keeps me out of their office unless absolutely necessary. | |||
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E Pluribus Unum |
Here's a good online outlet for researching and comparing "average" costs for specific medical procedures. It can get as specific as costs:geograhic area, based on zip code. HealthCareBlueBook.com also provides some good tools and resources for negotiating costs down. https://www.healthcarebluebook.com/ui/consumerfront | |||
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| safe & sound |
Right? Why take my money right this second at the 25% off what you just told me you were offering everybody else when you can give somebody else 25% to 40% of it six months from now? It makes zero sense.
Out of curiosity I checked it out. The doctor who performed the procedure and gave me 10% was in the same ballpark. The anesthesiologist who gave me 10% was in the same ballpark. The hospital "facility" who won't budge is twice what they list. | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us  |
With our insurance a simple out patient ear tube procedure cost us out of pocket just over $1700. We have already done 2 of those this year along with a run of specialists for other issues. Our family deductible is $7000 last I checked we were just over $5,000 of our deductible used for the year. ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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| Member |
I’d bet it will be close one way or the other. Shortly after my first reply I realized that, as a single guy who never goes to the doctor and had not had any previous medical expenses applied towards my deductible, my situation is a little different. | |||
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SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge Update 9/27 - Negotiated - As I Negotiate Medical Bills I Realize Nothing Has Changed
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