healthcare concerns

[safewrite]

I saw this article today. It got me thinking about how to deal with such things. Healthcare billing is changing. But some things remain the same. One constant thing is checking bills.

My mother was ill the whole time I was growing up, in the hospital at least once a year. (Wrong kind of blood in a transfusion, anaphylactic shock, only witness on

Comments

[autopope]

Our not being the immediate antecedent seems unimportant; what would matter is our having the foresight to initiate the process.

Yes: you need socialist healthcare and you need it now.

(Sorry, but this sort of horror story is just unreal, when seen from the side of the ocean with a system that isn't broken by design.)

it gets worse

[safewrite]

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/print/

very long article, but worth it

[safewrite]

Seriously, Charlie, read the whole article or at least skim the conclusions, because it points out that socialized medicine may help will not stop a lot of the abuse. Abuse stems from HOW prices are reached, and how even certain things in our semi-socialized existing system (Medicare and Medicaid) are incredibly overpriced due to politics. The medical-industrial complex has three times as many lobbyists in Washington than the military-industrial complex. And it shows.

Right now we have a brand of corporate fascism, from the Goldman Sachs in Chief on downward: favoritism for some companies at the expense of others writ large. It's appalling.

[blairmacg]

I've been meaning to write this up, too, but have run out of time. I'm glad you put it up.

Medical billing and service delivery is indeed ridiculous, as are the lists of "standard" tests and the "upselling" of procedures. It's a coercive system that has succeeded in cloaking itself in mystery deemed to be too complex for the masses.

[safewrite]

Hospital pricing has no rhyme or reason. Their "chargemaster" internal billing rates are neither standardized nor rational. The article shows line-by-line hospital charges like $1.50 for a generic Tylenol tablet, which you can get 100 tabs for $1.49 at Walmart. It shows $24 for a niacin tablet that costs five cents. It shows triple-billing for things that should come included in your basic room rate: first as a separate charge, and then as part of a kit. A guy was charged $32 for a blanket to keep him warm during outpatient surgery: a blanket that they would wash and reuse.

[blairmacg]

Yup. The charges are crazy. Arbitrary. Just on the legal line of extortion.

I often see clients who submit without question to recommended procedures and subsequent payments because they so fear the doctor becoming upset with them. These folks are certain they won't receive decent care if they complain about anything.

[safewrite]

Tell them that hospital charges are a starting point in negotiations. And get them to negotiate UP from the Medicare rate, not down from the hospital's chargemaster rate. Chargemaster rates can be ten to 100 times the Medicare rate. And Medicare rates are public knowledge.

[joycemocha]

We have relatively good healthcare (Kaiser) and it's still scary.

Our friend who died last summer racked up $30,000+ in hospital bills for four days up to her dying.

[safewrite]

Ouch. $1875 a day. Do her relatives have to pay that outrageous amount? Send them to a medical-billing advocate. The article suugests them to negotiate down your hospital bills.

[joycemocha]

Sadly, yes they have to pay it. No insurance, no money...but the husband was able to borrow against the house and will be paying it off. He was able to get other bills forgiven and they did discount part of the hospital bill.

[j_cheney]

So far our copays have stayed the same, but our prescriptions have gone up. We're pretty lucky at this point.

[safewrite]

They went to mail-order Rx four years ago, for anything that needs more than two refills. It really cut costs. Then, three years ago the insurer (United Healthcare) upped the copays slightly.

The good news is that Brian and I now see how much things cost and think about what procedures to allow. When I broke my foot and the x-ray was inconclusive (small bone surrounded by other bones) they wanted to send me to get an MRI. I questioned that, severely. Would it alter my course of treatment? No? Then let's just skip the MRI. The doctor palpitated my foot, prescribed the boot, and I got better without the added expense. Since it came out of a health savings account that rolled over to this year, we just used the money I saved to buy Brian some expensive medicine.

[j_cheney]

Good decision...

[bogwitch64]

No matter what our out of pocked, NO insurance company ever made money on us--and we still had to find $30,000 to put out for medical last year.

It's insane.

[safewrite]

You want to talk insane? Brian is home for a week with acute bronchitis. And I just spent $360 on Brian's antibiotics, an inhaler, and codeine cough medicine. After spending $159 last month for 10% hydrocortisone cream for his elbows. It all comes out of the FSA, and counts against our $3K deductible, but it's a far cry from my $10 for three months of beta blockers.

Right now I am trying to figure out how to pay our doctor via a website, since he will not take the FSA Visa card.