Total bill for my hospital stay last year

[beam]

Here's a challenge that will (or at lease should) make you turn white.

Punk....try to find out how much of the Insurance company's portion will be written off.

You see...and I just found this out because I experienced it first hand...that when you have a medical bill split and the Insurance company covers part and the patient covers the other part, most often...a major portion if not all of the Insurance company's portion is written off.

Think about it. The insurance companies provide a lot of customers. The services you received obviously aren't worth the 384k, the cost is inflated so that the insurance company's portion can be written off and the hospital make due with the patient's payment portion...in your case 140k.

So...the travesty is that the insurance companies to whom we pay obnoxious premiums don't really pay that much to the hospitals. We as patients still foot most of the bill.

[Lohman446]

True, and most hospitals will take far less than face value for "payment in full" with no adverse notes on your credit.

[Hilltop Customs]

Here's a challenge that will (or at lease should) make you turn white.

Punk....try to find out how much of the Insurance company's portion will be written off.

You see...and I just found this out because I experienced it first hand...that when you have a medical bill split and the Insurance company covers part and the patient covers the other part, most often...a major portion if not all of the Insurance company's portion is written off.

Think about it. The insurance companies provide a lot of customers. The services you received obviously aren't worth the 384k, the cost is inflated so that the insurance company's portion can be written off and the hospital make due with the patient's payment portion...in your case 140k.

So...the travesty is that the insurance companies to whom we pay obnoxious premiums don't really pay that much to the hospitals. We as patients still foot most of the bill.

can you prove that? I'm not trying to be objective, I believe you....I also believe hospitals probably inflate prices specifically for this purpose(its corporations working together to both boost profits....its hard to doubt) I was wanna know where you could find info relating to something like that?

maybe insurance should only be allowed to be used when you cannot financially afford to pay the bill yourself....stop the abuse of the system. With insurance privatized theres no way to judge how much people can afford though. If it was run by the government with knowledge of income, then it would be possible. my bad for dragging it back into the topic. hehe

insurance is supposed to be there for major things that you cant afford. If your making a $100k a year, I'm sorry but you should be able to afford your $1000 in pills you abuse per month(yea its a generalization, but the general public is abusing pills at an amazing rate and theres no one doing ANYTHING).

[Lohman446]

maybe insurance should only be allowed to be used when you cannot financially afford to pay the bill yourself....stop the abuse of the system. With insurance privatized theres no way to judge how much people can afford though. If it was run by the government with knowledge of income, then it would be possible. my bad for dragging it back into the topic. hehe

Its called Medicare and the abuse (both by those applying, receiving, and billing) would probably concern you, along with the general waste of the system.

[Hilltop Customs]

maybe we should use all the money thats wasted fighting the losing battle against illegal drugs to fix up the medical insurance industry........lol i'm just sayin


Hilltop for president! :rofl: "I'm Ryan Hill, and I approve this message"

[grEnAlEins]

Hilltop for president! :rofl: "I'm Ryan Hill, and I approve this message"

Surely you cannot be worse than Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dumb...

/Hey, don't call me Shurley :rofl:

[bornl33t]

Ya think that's bad if we get socialized medicine you can expect to lay in the hall for 3 hours while the doc get there only to have bleed to death by the time he shows up. True story..happened to my neighbor when I was in Europe.

The cost for liability insurance is staggering, if there's one thing our government can do for health insurance is stop the frivolous suits against doctors.

[beam]

can you prove that? I'm not trying to be objective, I believe you....I also believe hospitals probably inflate prices specifically for this purpose(its corporations working together to both boost profits....its hard to doubt) I was wanna know where you could find info relating to something like that?

maybe insurance should only be allowed to be used when you cannot financially afford to pay the bill yourself....stop the abuse of the system. With insurance privatized theres no way to judge how much people can afford though. If it was run by the government with knowledge of income, then it would be possible. my bad for dragging it back into the topic. hehe

insurance is supposed to be there for major things that you cant afford. If your making a $100k a year, I'm sorry but you should be able to afford your $1000 in pills you abuse per month(yea its a generalization, but the general public is abusing pills at an amazing rate and theres no one doing ANYTHING).

I can't prove it because it's wrong. I talked to my mom who has been a clinic manager for years and she set me straight.

What I described above is actually insurance fraud...so that's a good thing.

The negotiated rates for things actually happens prior to any billing. Depending on the size of the carrier, they may negotiate a better rate for care on the patient's behalf than smaller carriers.

So, if a blood test costs the hospital $50, they may negotiate with a certain insurance carrier to make it $30. The $20 difference is what is written off. After that, the amount that the insurance carrier will cover does actually get paid to the hospital. The patient is responsible for his/her portion.

So I apologize...I had it wrong before.

[Coralis]

Ya think that's bad if we get socialized medicine you can expect to lay in the hall for 3 hours while the doc get there only to have bleed to death by the time he shows up. True story..happened to my neighbor when I was in Europe. The cost for liability insurance is staggering, if there's one thing our government can do for health insurance is stop the frivolous suits against doctors.

Go sit in a E. R. 3hrs is nothing these days.

[Hilltop Customs]

Go sit in a E. R. 3hrs is nothing these days.

depends where your at, but I had to sit over 3 hours waiting for my friend to get admitted....but other times you can get almost instant service.

I really dont see how a change in insurance would extend waiting times....in fact, times should be reduce. If you present at the hospital with a condition which falls under "general public insurance" there would essentially be no wasted time in presenting/verifying insurance. This may not seem like a large amount of time, but reducing small times like that can massively reduce waiting line length and average wait times.....especially in situations where the facility is operating at max capacity/throughput of customers/patients.

There should be a general public policy of care everyone is given, and there should be a purchasable coverage which extends above the public policy. The cost of the purchasable insurance would not be high, since its use would be less common, but if it was broadly accepted/purchased(only situation where rates would be low) it would allow for extremely high payouts and less fighting over payout situations. A general policy allows the immediate treatment of any person for a cover-able illness, so the focus has been taken off "do they have insurance" and been shifted to "what is the matter with them?" That seems more productive to me.

[Lohman446]

There should be a general public policy of care everyone is given, and there should be a purchasable coverage which extends above the public policy. The cost of the purchasable insurance would not be high, since its use would be less common, but if it was broadly accepted/purchased(only situation where rates would be low) it would allow for extremely high payouts and less fighting over payout situations. A general policy allows the immediate treatment of any person for a cover-able illness, so the focus has been taken off "do they have insurance" and been shifted to "what is the matter with them?" That seems more productive to me.

So what can I purchase?

There is a basic level of care given. A hospital (at least in MI) must treat life threatening situations without denial. Even if the patient cannot afford it. Afterwards medicare (or is it medicaid) may pay for it, or the bankruptcy courts may deal with it.

Where does your basic care end and your purchase care begin? Who decides which a person falls into?

[Hilltop Customs]

So what can I purchase?

There is a basic level of care given. A hospital (at least in MI) must treat life threatening situations without denial. Even if the patient cannot afford it. Afterwards medicare (or is it medicaid) may pay for it, or the bankruptcy courts may deal with it.

Where does your basic care end and your purchase care begin? Who decides which a person falls into?

dunno, that would depend on a massive amount of statistics that only insurance companies and the government would have access to. Its the same process that insurance companies do now, except formed into a general basic level that would apply to every person(not just near death, but low cost general medicine) that would be paid for by every person through some type of tax addition or funding from cutting spending in other areas.....war on drugs would be my choice to cut/gain funds through additional taxable sales, but thats just me.

[Lohman446]

I don't disagree that in theory its a good idea.

I think, however, you hit severe issues in implementation. I also think you have a severe issue under the 14th amendment equal protection clause when my medical condition is covered by the state and yours is not.

[Hilltop Customs]

I got the idea from my Austrialan roomate, its how she described their health care. I admit its got some problems, I just like the idea that the first thing the doctors have to do is examine you, not talk to your insurance company.

[Ninjeff]

Every kind of health care is going to have problems. At this point ours is really fuggered and i would like to try what Europe or Canada is dishing out