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The New Coffee Room

  1. TNCR
  2. General Discussion
  3. Pretty soon you're talking about real money

Pretty soon you're talking about real money

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  • Doctor PhibesD Offline
    Doctor PhibesD Offline
    Doctor Phibes
    wrote on last edited by
    #5

    Jesus, what a nightmare. There shouldn't be this level of uncertainty associated with medical procedures. I can't think of anything else where they get away with just not being able to tell you what something is going to cost.

    I hope they get it fixed.

    I was only joking

    1 Reply Last reply
    • George KG Offline
      George KG Offline
      George K
      wrote on last edited by
      #6

      The whole "out of network" stuff is a nightmare.

      Our group was told that, to renew our contract, we had to be in all networks that the hospital was in. That's how it should be.

      D3 needed an operation in June. The hospital that she was going to go to was "out of network." She cancelled...

      "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

      The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.

      1 Reply Last reply
      • taiwan_girlT Offline
        taiwan_girlT Offline
        taiwan_girl
        wrote on last edited by
        #7

        @Horace Ouch!!!! That is so bad to have the problems with the thumb and then to add on the problem with the bill

        Hope that both get settled in the right way!!!

        1 Reply Last reply
        • HoraceH Offline
          HoraceH Offline
          Horace
          wrote on last edited by
          #8

          Thanks everybody. I think it will get cleared up. I have a form they gave me before the surgery where they wrote that my out of pocket expense would be 1,400. That should come in handy. However I never signed anything binding because all their costs were "estimates".

          Education is extremely important.

          1 Reply Last reply
          • Aqua LetiferA Offline
            Aqua LetiferA Offline
            Aqua Letifer
            wrote on last edited by
            #9

            Holy shit man. 😞 I'm really sorry. I've been in a similar spot a couple of times. It's a crazy time burden on your part but usually you can fight them into something reasonable. Here's hoping.

            Please love yourself.

            1 Reply Last reply
            • HoraceH Offline
              HoraceH Offline
              Horace
              wrote on last edited by
              #10

              I think this is a simple mistake. Maybe I'm naive. I'll know more tomorrow. But the surgeon's group is covered by my insurance and the surgery center checked with my insurance before the surgery, which is how they quoted me the 1,400 number. Somehow it got billed as "out of network" which I think may be a clerical error.

              Education is extremely important.

              1 Reply Last reply
              • 89th8 Offline
                89th8 Offline
                89th
                wrote on last edited by 89th
                #11

                First, I still don’t understand how medical costs work. The doctors, the facilities, private vs institutions, insurance, networks, etc. Gives me a headache.

                Second, I love how $98,000 could be so easily made as a mistake on their end. Pretty sure if you went to buy three or four new cars from a dealership, the price wouldn’t be a guess.

                1 Reply Last reply
                • HoraceH Offline
                  HoraceH Offline
                  Horace
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #12

                  the american system of health care is more bonkers than can really be expressed with mere words.

                  Education is extremely important.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  • RainmanR Offline
                    RainmanR Offline
                    Rainman
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #13

                    Wow, Horace. You're pretty cool and collected about this, I think I'd be a wreck.
                    Of course the difference is, $98,000 is just pocket change to you, not that big a deal, just a nuisance, a slight bother, just one less bottle of expensive wine, one hour less in the Gulfstream.

                    The thumb issue though, that's different. As someone that likes to dabble playing the piano, that would be more than catastrophic. I think it would send me into an emotional tailspin.

                    As I recall, Trump issued an EO that at least prescription prices on ads would need to be displayed, as a first step towards people being able to compare prices in the health care field. Blocked by a court (again).

                    Good luck and give 'em hell.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    • AxtremusA Away
                      AxtremusA Away
                      Axtremus
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #14

                      I keep telling you folks, single-payer universal healthcare FTW.

                      LarryL 1 Reply Last reply
                      • KlausK Offline
                        KlausK Offline
                        Klaus
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #15

                        American exceptionalism at its best.

                        Don't worry, though. If you sit in front of a mirror and say "But we have the best healthcare in the world!" a thousand times you can make yourself believe it.

                        Aqua LetiferA 1 Reply Last reply
                        • KlausK Klaus

                          American exceptionalism at its best.

                          Don't worry, though. If you sit in front of a mirror and say "But we have the best healthcare in the world!" a thousand times you can make yourself believe it.

                          Aqua LetiferA Offline
                          Aqua LetiferA Offline
                          Aqua Letifer
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #16

                          @Klaus said in Pretty soon you're talking about real money:

                          American exceptionalism at its best.

                          Don't worry, though. If you sit in front of a mirror and say "But we have the best healthcare in the world!" a thousand times you can make yourself believe it.

                          Klaus, everything is best over here. Because over here is America.

                          You might not know what that means, but I'll clue you in: everything American is better than everything non-American, simply by virtue of being American. American cheese is better than non-American cheese. The same goes for American German beer, American museums that house European works of art, American incarceration rates, American healthcare debt, etc., etc.

                          Please love yourself.

                          Doctor PhibesD 1 Reply Last reply
                          • Aqua LetiferA Aqua Letifer

                            @Klaus said in Pretty soon you're talking about real money:

                            American exceptionalism at its best.

                            Don't worry, though. If you sit in front of a mirror and say "But we have the best healthcare in the world!" a thousand times you can make yourself believe it.

                            Klaus, everything is best over here. Because over here is America.

                            You might not know what that means, but I'll clue you in: everything American is better than everything non-American, simply by virtue of being American. American cheese is better than non-American cheese. The same goes for American German beer, American museums that house European works of art, American incarceration rates, American healthcare debt, etc., etc.

                            Doctor PhibesD Offline
                            Doctor PhibesD Offline
                            Doctor Phibes
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #17

                            @Aqua-Letifer said in Pretty soon you're talking about real money:

                            American cheese product is better than non-American cheese product .

                            FIFY

                            I was only joking

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            • HoraceH Offline
                              HoraceH Offline
                              Horace
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #18

                              I haven't finalized anything yet, but it is seeming like this surgery center sends these huge bills as leverage to get the patient to pay the smaller amount they are really looking for, asap. Like, before the patient pays any other bills they may have. The problem is that I never received a bill for the smaller amount. Only this estimate they gave me before the surgery.

                              Education is extremely important.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              • HoraceH Offline
                                HoraceH Offline
                                Horace
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #19

                                The surgery center is basically choosing to be a bad citizen by doing whatever they can within the law and clearly outside ethical boundaries, to jump to the front of the customer's priority queue for paying their bills.

                                Education is extremely important.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                • AxtremusA Axtremus

                                  I keep telling you folks, single-payer universal healthcare FTW.

                                  LarryL Offline
                                  LarryL Offline
                                  Larry
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #20

                                  @Axtremus said in Pretty soon you're talking about real money:

                                  I keep telling you folks, single-payer universal healthcare FTW.

                                  No. If that had been in place he would have had to wait so long to get his surgery that the joints would have healed leaving him deformed, when he finally did get to have surgery it would have been done by a half trained flunky who didn't give a shit whether or not he did a good job because he's working for peanuts and if you don't like it tough shit because the government writes his paycheck not you.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  • KlausK Offline
                                    KlausK Offline
                                    Klaus
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #21
                                    1. Single-payer universal healthcare doesn't necessarily mean long waiting times or bad health service. In some countries it works well, in other countries not so much.
                                    2. There are various health systems that work better than the American one that are not single-payer universal.

                                    I have the impression that the healthcare debate in the US is much too focused on a seemingly one-dimensional binary decision, but in reality health care systems have many many dimensions, and there are many incremental improvements on dimensions different from single-payer universal vs private.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    • LarryL Offline
                                      LarryL Offline
                                      Larry
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #22

                                      What country has single payer and no waiting line?

                                      KlausK 1 Reply Last reply
                                      • jon-nycJ Online
                                        jon-nycJ Online
                                        jon-nyc
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #23

                                        That sucks, Horace.

                                        I had a part time unpaid job after my transplant getting everything sorted out. Lasted for months. It got to where I had the desk number and email of a woman at United Health Care and we were sending spreadsheets back and forth with the status of various claims.

                                        Only non-witches get due process.

                                        • Cotton Mather, Salem Massachusetts, 1692
                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        • LarryL Larry

                                          What country has single payer and no waiting line?

                                          KlausK Offline
                                          KlausK Offline
                                          Klaus
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #24

                                          @Larry said in Pretty soon you're talking about real money:

                                          What country has single payer and no waiting line?

                                          South Korea, Luxembourg, Japan, France, Norway, Denmark, to name a few.

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