Posted on 01/06/2014 10:28:50 PM PST by Daffynition
About 60 years ago I read an interview of the President of the Hospital Administrators association and he admitted that they overcharge patients that have insurance in order to cover the cost of treating patients that have no means to pay.
This government has been in the income redistribution racket for a lot longer than most realize.
In the early 60's my cousin had appendicitis that went septic and he spent 3 days in the hospital, his total bill for the surgery and the three days in hospital came to $300.00.
10K deductibles plus 35% of the cost?
Yeah. Cause an inflammed appendix can wait a day or two.
He probably would have had a nice cheap funeral in India or Thailand.
The surgeon would be lucky to see $800 dollars from the procedure. And that includes post op care.
Please provide statute or code to support that assertion.
According to the bill it was $45k in "payments and adjustments" so you're no doubt correct.
Cigna sends me a statement every time I go to the doctor. It shows what was charged, what they paid, and what I owe, if anything. I'd be surprised if Aetna doesn't do the same.
Very common here in IL. That practice started some years ago (within the last 5-10.)
He could have. This Site and a bunch of other similar sites would have allowed him to price shop hospitals in his area.
Great, next there will be a priceline.com to help decide if one can afford that triple bypass or not. Maybe there’ll be coupons in the Sunday paper for 20% off......
Groupon. A $55,000 appendectomy for only $35,000. Limit two per customer.
Appendix, gall bladder, heart attack, stroke etc are emergencies, and one has to pay local hospital whatever they want to screw you for.
I was just stating an example of cost difference for medical procedures.
I had some cancer radiation treatments a few years ago. The bill was $55,000. However, Medicare would only pay a little over $5,000.
Apparently the hospitals are forced to eat the difference when it comes to Medicare patients but private patients or those covered by other insurance are required to pay the full $55,000.
I’m not sure what the true cost of the treatment including payments for the machines, doctors, nurses, etc. would be, but the variance means that pricing is not an exact science or everyone would be paying the same.
Perhaps the private patients with insurance are paying more to pay for the Medicare patients and a true cost for the treatments would have been in the $10-15,000 range.
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