Health Insurance Warning

[NYCDiane]

No need for all the asinine and snarky remarks in response to what I posted. For those of you who have had the same doc for 20+ years? Yippee for you! Do you want a cookie??? So what if you've had him that long? Doesn't mean he isn't looking out for himself or that you know what goes on between him and his wife or what he does in his personal time. I have known plenty of doctors, attorneys, and the like who have been married for 20, 30 years. Trust me, when you're a money maker, the gold diggers smell it and they swarm. I can't tell you how many I have seen with their girlfriends on Saturday and their wives on Sunday. It may not be nice and you may not want to believe it but I've seen it over and over and over.

As for the volunteers? Good that they're volunteering. But volunteer work doesn't pay the bills and they do get perks for their volunteerism so it's not all "free" work.

Whatever. Believe what you want. But if your doc doesn't want to be bought out by a hospital he doesn't have to be. The ones that are are doing it to make more money and that's the bottom line.

 

[ilovebassets]

No need for all the asinine and snarky remarks in response to what I posted. For those of you who have had the same doc for 20+ years? Yippee for you! Do you want a cookie??? So what if you've had him that long? Doesn't mean he isn't looking out for himself or that you know what goes on between him and his wife or what he does in his personal time. I have known plenty of doctors, attorneys, and the like who have been married for 20, 30 years. Trust me, when you're a money maker, the gold diggers smell it and they swarm. I can't tell you how many I have seen with their girlfriends on Saturday and their wives on Sunday. It may not be nice and you may not want to believe it but I've seen it over and over and over.

As for the volunteers? Good that they're volunteering. But volunteer work doesn't pay the bills and they do get perks for their volunteerism so it's not all "free" work.

Whatever. Believe what you want. But if your doc doesn't want to be bought out by a hospital he doesn't have to be. The ones that are are doing it to make more money and that's the bottom line.

A lot of what you're saying isn't just offensive (but so what, I've got thick skin), it's flat out wrong. I am a physician. The majority of my social network is composed of physicians. I have never known a single person to have an affair. And as a female physician, I can promise you I don't have a mistress or a trophy wife but rather a highly educated, hard working successful husband as the majority of my physician friends do.

Perks for volunteering? Like what exactly? A few people in my department gave up a week of their vacation time to go to Haiti earlier this year and do simple but life changing operations 16 hours a day for a week. The only perk must of them got was some vomiting and diarrhea.

All professions have good and bad people. Does medicine have some bad ones? Sure, of course. But I can promise you that the bad ones are most certainly not over represented in my profession.

 

[Judique]

No need for all the asinine and snarky remarks in response to what I posted. For those of you who have had the same doc for 20+ years? Yippee for you! Do you want a cookie??? So what if you've had him that long? Doesn't mean he isn't looking out for himself or that you know what goes on between him and his wife or what he does in his personal time. I have known plenty of doctors, attorneys, and the like who have been married for 20, 30 years. Trust me, when you're a money maker, the gold diggers smell it and they swarm. I can't tell you how many I have seen with their girlfriends on Saturday and their wives on Sunday. It may not be nice and you may not want to believe it but I've seen it over and over and over.

As for the volunteers? Good that they're volunteering. But volunteer work doesn't pay the bills and they do get perks for their volunteerism so it's not all "free" work.

Whatever. Believe what you want. But if your doc doesn't want to be bought out by a hospital he doesn't have to be. The ones that are are doing it to make more money and that's the bottom line.

I'll take a cookie.

I'm not sure what's going on in your world but don't assume it is the norm in every community.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm some areas few, if any, anesthesiologists, participate with insurance. The anesthesiologists won't accept an amount equivalent to what an in network provider charges. Patients can pay, fight with the insurance company or fight with the doctor.

Yep. A friend was just complaining about this recently. Her DD had an emergency appendectomy. In-network hospital, in-network surgeon... no in-network anesthesiologist on duty, so she got a big bill for that and another for a pre-discharge visit by an out-of-network doctor who just happened to be the one on duty when her DD was scheduled to go home. Oh, and a huge bill for the medical transportation from the ER where she was dx'd to the affiliated hospital she was transferred to for the surgery. I'm not sure there's any way around that; it isn't as though every procedure can be delayed or rearranged until the stars align and in-network providers are available for each service rendered.

 

[disney1990]

Another thing everyone should be aware of: Most insurance companies have a "0" co-pay for yearly physicals. HOWEVER, if you go in for your physical and there is any mention of anything else (even a prescription refill!), it is no longer a yearly physical and they will charge you a copay!

Went for my yearly physical & had all my RXs refilled. There was still no cost. But the doctor has to submit it has your yearly.

 

[Sadie22]

Many physicians are finding it preferable to join hospital systems rather than individually upgrading their offices to the electronic record-keeping now required by law (a good thing).