Read this and get pissed

What to heck has happened to American medical providers ?

Travis Warner owned a small company installing video equipment and internet . With so many working at home his business was very busy. One of his employees got covid so he went to get tested to insure he was not infected too. The bill for this little adventure in total was $56,384, including $54,000 for the PCR test. Folks IMO this is just wrong and there should be people going to jail. A legal crook is still a crook only with no honor.

The same thing happened to me many years ago as a hospital sent me a bill for $265,000 for my wife's 4 night 3 day hospital stay.....My insurance company told them to take $90,000 or come see them in court...If it is just us pedestrians without a big insurance company's legal department to fight the idiots then no one would be able to afford a temperature check at some of these rip off medical facilities.. Travis's insurance company paid $16,915.20 which is still insane as both test around here can be had for less than $200 the last time I checked.

Then the bill came.

The patient: Travis Warner, 36, is self-employed and bought his health plan from Molina Healthcare via HealthCare.gov.

Medical service: Two “COVID tests” for the coronavirus — a diagnostic PCR test, which typically takes a few days to process and is quite accurate, and a rapid antigen test, which is less accurate but produces results in minutes.

Total bill: $56,384, including $54,000 for the PCR test and the balance for the antigen test and an ER facility fee. Molina’s negotiated rate for both tests and the facility fee totaled $16,915.20, which the insurer paid in full.

Service provider: SignatureCare Emergency Center in Lewisville, one of more than a dozen free-standing ERs the company owns across Texas.

What gives: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, stories of shockingly high prices for coronavirus tests have abounded. A recent report from an insurance trade association notes that “price gouging by certain providers continues to be a widespread problem.” Warner’s PCR bill of $54,000 was “astronomical” and “egregious,” according to health policy researchers we talked to.

Yet it’s perfectly legal. For coronavirus tests — like much else in American health care — there is no cap to what providers can charge, says Loren Adler, associate director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy.

www.activistpost.com...

Going to be a lot of unpaid bills. Not many can afford that kind of coin. I cut the tip of my finger a few years ago really bad. Needed surgery. Not even the whole finger, just the tip. Think it was 30K. I have amazing insurance, they covered it but most do not. Any major surgery, easily 1/4 million. The insurance though is only good while I work for this company. After that screwed.

Hospital visit yesterday to see a specialist 760 yen ( 8 bucks ) . spent nearly one hour with the doc and with the wife as translator.
60 day medication ( not a off brand ) 300 yen or about 3 dollars and 30 cents.

Yes, American insurance seems to be a big fraud for some reason, but then again who pays for all them gang bangers getting shot up on the streets of America ?

originally posted by: musicismagic
spent nearly one hour with the doc and with the wife as translator.

I was wondering what you were doing over there.

a reply to: Stupidsecrets

I think my yearly tab so far for 2021 is over 700k USD right now. Bills still rolling in.

Insurance is taking the brunt of it but damn.

It also depends on what medical provider you use. I had an echocardiogram a few months ago at the local hospital. It cost $3200.00. I have an appointment at my cardioligist for another one in a few months. He charges $420.00 for the same thing.

They wont tell you how much it costs at the hospital before you have a test or procedure. They claim they don't know with all the different doctors and companies involved. None of the doctors or nurses actually work there. They just rent space and equipment form another company at the hospital that is not actually the hospital. That way you get several bills from differnet sources and some that combine their bills just to save on paperwork.

I am still getting a $10,000.00 bill for a procrdure I had I think in Fuburary. I paid it the first time and the billing office takes care of it and tells me to ignore it. Then the next month, I get another bill exactly like that one.

All of these things seem to fall under the category of "Come squeeze blood from a turnip, you scumbag!" in my uneducated thinking.... Just sayin'................ To hell with these Covid communist scum...

originally posted by: lordcomac
a reply to: Stupidsecrets

I think my yearly tab so far for 2021 is over 700k USD right now. Bills still rolling in.

Insurance is taking the brunt of it but damn.

Hmm.. been in hospital twice in the past 3 years. Only paid for the ambulance. last bill was $270aud which I am paying off $25 a fortnight.

I'm glad I never moved to the US...

700k?? Are they replacing your bones with gold and diamonds?

a reply to: Stupidsecrets

If they get just one out of every 1,000 people to pay, they make out like bandits.

True Stories:

Nearby Hospital charges $7,000 for $400 MRI. 30% of patients pay the $7,000 without question.

Local Costco charged $29 for $7 jar of peanuts. Sold hundreds at that price before being called out by yours truly.

As with the Covid vaccine drugs and their risks/dangers, lots of responsibility lies with the consumer. Can't rely on honesty of providers, or government protection.

a reply to: 727Sky
I'm sorry you you guys are just catching on to this. But it has been going on for a long time. While it was heading in that direction before Ronny ray gun, he gave a it good push. Obama care, only cared for insurance company's. Since it gave them 50 million new customers.

I have no insurance, can't afford it. I need 3 different blood pressure pills. The pills aren't that high. Getting them is near impossible, without a loan from the bank. This is how it works, I need to pay for all these test to make sure the pills aren't killing me. If I don't pay for all the test to make sure the pills aren't killing me, they won't give me the pills that are keeping me alive.

Next time you're watching TV or listening to the radio, take note of what commercials you see or hear the most of.

a reply to: 727Sky

Here in Portugal Social Security pays most of the medical costs we have. In my case, as I'm diabetic, most things are free.

For example, has I haven't seen my doctor for more than one year because of CoViD-19, she has sent me be email many tests (around 30) and an electrocardiogram, all of them at no cost for me.

Health should never be a business.

a reply to: jerich0

We went through medical records and discovered it was an error to say 20 visits to the OR since 1998, it was 31 times.
How does one begin to calculate the costs involved that accomplished only one thing, to completely destroy rather than fix any of the problems?
“Medical Providers“.... what a freaking joke.
ALL SET....

Well, part of the problem is the whole 'game' itself.

I recently had a fairly major surgery on my shoulder. The bills started rolling in from all over the place. Holy COW! I was shocked! Fortunately, I have pretty good insurance. The insurance company told me to not worry about the bills for now, they were handling it. Still, I got to see all the bills as they rolled through.

Most all of the crazy monstrous bills are settled for .20 to .30 cents on the dollar, sometimes even pennies on the dollar. A bill will come in at $10,000 dollars, and it will be settled for $3,000 dollars, some even for $300 dollars. The other $7,000 winds up getting shown as a "discount". But...if you don't have insurance, you don't get this "discount". The insurance company has billions of dollars in horsepower to tell these providers..."If you don't like it...we'll see you in court" But if you tell one of these providers the same thing, they will say..."Okay, we'll inform you of the court date!"...forcing you to go hire an attorney and spend probably more on him than on the bill itself.

It's a racket! It's like Vegas, where the odds are always against you.

In my case, I had an anesthesiologist who my surgeon had appointed. Turns out this guy was "out of network" so I was left to fight with him directly. I didn't pick this guy, my surgeon did. Insurance company says all they know is this guy is out of network, you're on your own. It's not completely over yet, but it looks like I will prevail, but I had to get the surgeon involved to resolve the issue. And basically what he did was he got the "discount", so the bill went from $15,000 dollars down to $480 dollars. From there, I was able to negotiate the bill down by asking what it was going to take to settle this matter, would 50% be acceptable (seeing as how they were 50% to blame for the screw up). This appears to be where we're at now.

Bottom line, a $15,000 dollar bill will get settled for $240 dollars. Herein lies the problem we are all faced with in the healthcare world.

a reply to: 727Sky

Sure that's not a mis-print?

A bit too much for some random test! Sure it weren't just $56.38?

originally posted by: Albert999
*Hiccups*
It a bit errly in the morning tobe drinking but now I've finishhed the bourbon wht do i do now? *hiccup*
🍺 🤤

Try eating cornflakes.

originally posted by: CrazeeWorld777
a reply to: 727Sky

Sure that's not a mis-print?

A bit too much for some random test! Sure it weren't just $56.38?

That would have been my guess but that would still need to be multiplied by 10 to arrive at the figure.

How can they justify that figure? It's over 1000x higher than private rapid PCR in UK or Europe and over 10x the most advanced private MRI scans available.

I know the US system costs 2 - 3 times more than national health and is one of/the worst systems in the West but these figures are ridiculous.

a reply to: 727Sky

The American healthcare system is an utter joke and for profit. I have no insurance and boy do they love to stick it to us without insurance. I looked at some of the healthcare plans on the govt site and they are CRAP! WHY would I pay hundreds of dollars for something that doesn't cover anything until I pay out THOUSANDS! It's a damn joke. It is criminal if you ask me what they do.

I remember when I had my gallbladder removed they wanted me to take a pregnancy test and I flat our refused. I had the ability to have kids removed so it would be impossible for me to get pregnant and they had all of this in my records. I was like you are not going to charge my insurance thousands of dollars for something that is 100% not needed! I ended up having to sign a bunch of waivers and they tried to 'scare' me with the possibilities. I was NOT scared I was annoyed! Our entire system is meant to make money and make you go into debt while trying to stay healthy. NO medical stay should cost what they charge. It is robbery.

you cannot afford THIS healthcare system

Why do you expect me to pay for yours when I can't pay for mine?

Why is the world do you want to save it?

a reply to: 727Sky

They expect everyone to have insurance, so they price into the pockets of providers. In that sense, everyone is getting ripped off because even those of us who pay for insurance have to pay higher premiums to have the service of having our bills negotiated down.

This is what happens when everyone thinks that everyone *needs* some other party to pay for *all* their health care needs.

We get that middle man and the hospitals up their costs into those deeper pockets. The market adjusts to reflect the buying power of the ones who really are doing the bulk of the paying, and sad to say, it's no longer the single payer on the street reaching into his pocket.

Swapping to a single payer government system doesn't change things, either. It just changes the set of deep pockets the costs are priced into. It will be like college tuition and government student loans now.