Sickened at hospital charges

[roliepolieoliefan]

Random, but roliepolieoliefan, are you from Pittsburgh? Did you work at Magee?

I did and yep from Pittsburgh.

 

[clarabelle]

Do you remember the article in the news a couple of months ago about the patient in NC who got a C-section and there was no baby?
Obviously the hospital staff there should have done a pregnancy test.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Do you remember the article in the news a couple of months ago about the patient in NC who got a C-section and there was no baby?
Obviously the hospital staff there should have done a pregnancy test.

Missed that one. Told ya some people are

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Do you remember the article in the news a couple of months ago about the patient in NC who got a C-section and there was no baby?
Obviously the hospital staff there should have done a pregnancy test.

Or an ultrasound...or a doppler of the heartbeat.

Heck my OB didn't even do a PT on me. They took my word for it, did my intake, and then hook me up to the T/V U/S.

 

[disfan07]

No one is saying that if your dad loses his job that we shouldn't have healthcare, but really, look at the Gov't. Nothing they run succeeds, I don't want the Gov't controlling Drs and hospitals and Insurance. It won't work. Just look at the situation we are in now. The country is in such great shape financially.

Yeah and who got us into the finanacial shape we are in.....

so please explain to me how the he** we are supposed to pay for health isurance and teh medical bills if he were to lose his job. i want to know what your bright idea would be.

If I were to need private individual insurance right now, I would be denied because I have pre-existign conditions. Please explain to me what I should do at that point.

I'm not saying we NEED universal healthcare (it's not a bad idea but thats another thread)
I'm saying that we need to keep insrauce companies from jacking up prices because they can.
We need to keep insuracne companies from denying people coverage because they have pre-existing conditions.
We need to make sure that medical bankruptcy DOES NOT happen to people
We need to make sure that insurance companies CANNOT deny people treatment that they need

We need to make sure that everyone has access to the wonderful healthcare that so many people claim is widely available here.

We need AFFORDABLE healthcare. Everyone should be able to AFFORD health care. that is not the case in the US. If you think that our health care is affordable you must live in a pretty nice bubble right now and cross your fingers you never have to leave it.

 

[BEloveDisney]

I did and yep from Pittsburgh.

Just curious! I delivered my baby there in March.

 

[LuvOrlando]

This alone tells me that it's all about the benjamins for you...which is fine for you. A majority of the youngsters who want to be doctors aren't in it for the money; they're thinking of the altruistic value of helping people.

To tell you the truth, I'd rather have a doctor treating me who cared more about my welfare than he/she would about the money they're going to make off of me, which is why - given the choice - I'd much rather have a doctor from the "Socialized" countries than this one. It sounds to me as if they're making good money there, anyway.

When I go into my family practice, the whole experience from start to finish is

• Take a number
• Wait
• Get into a room
• Wait
• Nurse takes my vitals
• Wait
• Doctor finally arrives at my cell of the gerbil wheel. Spends about five minutes with me. Gives me her opinion. Moves to the next cell.
• Get dressed
• Pay the bill

I can hardly see how this format is any different from any other country's format except I get the priviledge of paying $50.00 just to walk into the office and the price goes up from there.

As for the special situations that the alarmists frequently trot out because they're afraid of change (lethal brain tumors, emergency liver surgeries, alien babies, etc), those situations don't apply, and will likely never apply, to the vast majority of American citizens who are currently uninsured or underinsured.

I'm glad you have great insurance. I'm glad you can afford to pay for your medical treatment. Unfortunately, your experience doesn't match the overwelming number of people in the US. As for me, I'll be happy when 2014 gets here and I can finally tell BCBS where to get off.

I'm all for covering other people. What I am against is changing a system the works for me because of other people. If they would just leave the system that is in place intact and absorb everyone else into the social programs that already exist most of us would be fine.

My household already dumps a pretty big sum into the tax system. I don't give a hoot what they do with it or how it's spread around. But under the thumb of bureaucrats our hospitals will no longer be free to fund exploratory procedures. Developing innovations in medicine either for drugs or techniques cost a great deal of money. Like any investor a willingness to incur a risk demands a payoff, if there is no expectation of a payoff things are stifled. People may hoot and hollar at the way we do things but the way we do things has paid for all the medications in our cabinets, all the fancy equipment at our Dr's disposal, and every new & improved way we do things that has prolonged human life. Life expectancy in 1850 was about 40 years. Then Briton Joseph Lister realized microorganisms could contribute to illness and as his theory took hold life expectancy floated up to about 50 years by 1900. When Penicillin showed up around 1930 you could only expect to live to about 60 but as that took off and interest turned to Research & Development we continued to float upwards to the current age of about 78 years. Species normally don't do this. Our lives increased in both length and quality because of good medicine. Now we are faced with epidemics of drug resistant microbes that are learning to bypass all the safeguards in place. Without funding who is going to have the freedom and means to figure this stuff out? Certainly not the people who were in charge of getting the Swine Flu vaccine to us. They turned to private industry to provide the vaccine and only had to get it out to us and there they failed miserably, too little and too late... thank goodness the illness was mild for most people.

No-one has to see it my way or agree with me but my discontent is about more than just money. Big business isn't always helpful but in some instances there are undeniable benefits and I think this is one of them and without money investors via big business will drop medicine like a hot potato and THEN where will we be? With MRSA and the like on the rise I think we would be in very serious trouble before the end of my lifetime.

Now I'm not a Dr, I studied Economics and Finance so when I look at a problem I do tend to see how dollars move around, good and bad. However, I am dependent on Dr's and Ph D's doing their R & D thing to keep me and my family safe so I am their unlikely advocate. I can see how things are going to play themselves out because a great deal of human behavior is all about money, you may not like it but needing stuff and obtaining the means to get that stuff we need drives us all day in- day out 24 a day 365 a year.

As for kids going into Medical School, this isn't free either. Unless a kid's family is independently wealthy that youngster will hit the age of 30 with a loss of 10 years income when he/she was in school being educated (lets say $40,000 year over 10 years = $400,000) AND at least $250,000 in debt from student loans not to mention room and board and meals and wear and tear on the person. So at 30 you wake yp with a MD next to your name and at least $650,000 in the hole. Why on earth would any sane person absorb this unless he/she was going to be able to earn enough to pay in back AND still have enough left over to slide him or herself plus family into a decent middle class existence? I'm sure not advocating it for my kids. Altruism is wonderful but the security of enough money to live is important too. I grew up REALLY POOR and you can be as noble as you want about it, personally I thought it was awful and aim to put my kids on a path leading as far away from poverty as possible.

 

[mhsjax]

I'm all for covering other people. What I am against is changing a system the works for me because of other people. If they would just leave the system that is in place intact and absorb everyone else into the social programs that already exist most of us would be fine.

My household already dumps a pretty big sum into the tax system. I don't give a hoot what they do with it or how it's spread around. But under the thumb of bureaucrats our hospitals will no longer be free to fund exploratory procedures. Developing innovations in medicine either for drugs or techniques cost a great deal of money. Like any investor a willingness to incur a risk demands a payoff, if there is no expectation of a payoff things are stifled. People may hoot and hollar at the way we do things but the way we do things has paid for all the medications in our cabinets, all the fancy equipment at our Dr's disposal, and every new & improved way we do things that has prolonged human life. Life expectancy in 1850 was about 40 years. Then Briton Joseph Lister realized microorganisms could contribute to illness and as his theory took hold life expectancy floated up to about 50 years by 1900. When Penicillin showed up around 1930 you could only expect to live to about 60 but as that took off and interest turned to Research & Development we continued to float upwards to the current age of about 78 years. Species normally don't do this. Our lives increased in both length and quality because of good medicine. Now we are faced with epidemics of drug resistant microbes that are learning to bypass all the safeguards in place. Without funding who is going to have the freedom and means to figure this stuff out? Certainly not the people who were in charge of getting the Swine Flu vaccine to us. They turned to private industry to provide the vaccine and only had to get it out to us and there they failed miserably, too little and too late... thank goodness the illness was mild for most people.

No-one has to see it my way or agree with me but my discontent is about more than just money. Big business isn't always helpful but in some instances there are undeniable benefits and I think this is one of them and without money investors via big business will drop medicine like a hot potato and THEN where will we be? With MRSA and the like on the rise I think we would be in very serious trouble before the end of my lifetime.

Now I'm not a Dr, I studied Economics and Finance so when I look at a problem I do tend to see how dollars move around, good and bad. However, I am dependent on Dr's and Ph D's doing their R & D thing to keep me and my family safe so I am their unlikely advocate. I can see how things are going to play themselves out because a great deal of human behavior is all about money, you may not like it but needing stuff and obtaining the means to get that stuff we need drives us all day in- day out 24 a day 365 a year.

As for kids going into Medical School, this isn't free either. Unless a kid's family is independently wealthy that youngster will hit the age of 30 with a loss of 10 years income when he/she was in school being educated (lets say $40,000 year over 10 years = $400,000) AND at least $250,000 in debt from student loans not to mention room and board and meals and wear and tear on the person. So at 30 you wake yp with a MD next to your name and at least $650,000 in the hole. Why on earth would any sane person absorb this unless he/she was going to be able to earn enough to pay in back AND still have enough left over to slide him or herself plus family into a decent middle class existence? I'm sure not advocating it for my kids. Altruism is wonderful but the security of enough money to live is important too. I grew up REALLY POOR and you can be as noble as you want about it, personally I thought it was awful and aim to put my kids on a path leading as far away from poverty as possible.

Excellent post. Also to add about the pp comments. I have been around Dr's for all of my adult life. This is who I worked for. Almost every Dr out there started out wanting just to help people. Then it turns. Sure they still want to help, but the have to make a lot of money. Talk to the lawyers and mal practice insurance companies to fin out why.

Really, the reality is that I know several kids that want to be Drs, but because of the cost of medical school and the return, they aren't going to do it.

 

[mhsjax]

double post

 

[Magpie]

As for kids going into Medical School, this isn't free either. Unless a kid's family is independently wealthy that youngster will hit the age of 30 with a loss of 10 years income when he/she was in school being educated (lets say $40,000 year over 10 years = $400,000) AND at least $250,000 in debt from student loans not to mention room and board and meals and wear and tear on the person. So at 30 you wake yp with a MD next to your name and at least $650,000 in the hole. Why on earth would any sane person absorb this unless he/she was going to be able to earn enough to pay in back AND still have enough left over to slide him or herself plus family into a decent middle class existence? I'm sure not advocating it for my kids. Altruism is wonderful but the security of enough money to live is important too. I grew up REALLY POOR and you can be as noble as you want about it, personally I thought it was awful and aim to put my kids on a path leading as far away from poverty as possible.

It's nowhere near that expensive here - more like 5,000 to 20,000 a year in tuition, over seven years (3 year undergrad, 3-4 year med school). If the child chooses to live at home while attending school, it gets even cheaper. There are excellent RESP programs in place so parents can put money aside for their children's tuition and we've been paying into one for years. BTW - they'll only be 25 or 26 by the time they graduate medical school - not 30!

My daughter can also get all or most of her medical school tuition covered if she signs an agreement to work for a few years in a Northern Community. Since we have family ties in the North, that's a good option for us. Also, any child can choose to get their medical education covered by the military - we frequently run into doctors in the hospital who are working part time as civilians, between military deployments.

And, of course, she'll be working and saving after she turns 16, like every college-bound kid does.

So I'm not at all worried about her financial future, if she chooses to become a doctor!

FWIW, I grew up really poor, too, though I won't get into the boring details. Don't try to compete with me in the "who had less money" game, or I'll tell you a story about a can of tuna!

 

[wvjules]

It's not only hospitals that charge ridiculous amounts, but doctors do as well.

I have to have the pressures in my eyes checked at the opthalmologist's office. The charge for it keeps going up, up, up. This last time I had it done in May the pressures were up, so he wanted to start me on a second medication (eye drops) and had me come back 2 weeks later for a re-check. Then he wants me to come back in July to be checked again. I just can't afford it. Not with what they charge for the 2-minute procedure. I couldn't remember how much I paid the time before, so asked and she said it is $60 each time, but said she wouldn't charge me for the second visit. I told her I really appreciated that.

So, when the bill came I was expecting it to be $60. The actual bill is for $309, "my share" is $169 and $140 is "pending insurance" and I know they won't pay. So they're going to want me to pay $309. I will be talking to them about it this week. Tried to go to the office Friday afternoon, but they only have morning hours on Fridays so it has to wait until this coming week. But I definitely want some explanation, especially since she did charge me for the second visit. I wish I would have gotten the name of the woman who quoted me $60, but I didn't, so that's why I want to go talk to them in person, so that I can hopefully talk to her and not someone else.

I just don't understand how they can charge such high prices for something that only takes a couple of minutes. I just wonder how much they charge for a complete eye exam. Not sure I even want to know!!

How much does that piece of equipment cost? How much was the doctor's training on said equipment? How much is her expertise on treating your condition worth?

 

[abdmom]

My household already dumps a pretty big sum into the tax system. I don't give a hoot what they do with it or how it's spread around. But under the thumb of bureaucrats our hospitals will no longer be free to fund exploratory procedures. Developing innovations in medicine either for drugs or techniques cost a great deal of money. Like any investor a willingness to incur a risk demands a payoff, if there is no expectation of a payoff things are stifled. People may hoot and hollar at the way we do things but the way we do things has paid for all the medications in our cabinets, all the fancy equipment at our Dr's disposal, and every new & improved way we do things that has prolonged human life. Life expectancy in 1850 was about 40 years. Then Briton Joseph Lister realized microorganisms could contribute to illness and as his theory took hold life expectancy floated up to about 50 years by 1900. When Penicillin showed up around 1930 you could only expect to live to about 60 but as that took off and interest turned to Research & Development we continued to float upwards to the current age of about 78 years. Species normally don't do this. Our lives increased in both length and quality because of good medicine. Now we are faced with epidemics of drug resistant microbes that are learning to bypass all the safeguards in place. Without funding who is going to have the freedom and means to figure this stuff out? Certainly not the people who were in charge of getting the Swine Flu vaccine to us. They turned to private industry to provide the vaccine and only had to get it out to us and there they failed miserably, too little and too late... thank goodness the illness was mild for most people.

No-one has to see it my way or agree with me but my discontent is about more than just money. Big business isn't always helpful but in some instances there are undeniable benefits and I think this is one of them and without money investors via big business will drop medicine like a hot potato and THEN where will we be? With MRSA and the like on the rise I think we would be in very serious trouble before the end of my lifetime.

Now I'm not a Dr, I studied Economics and Finance so when I look at a problem I do tend to see how dollars move around, good and bad. However, I am dependent on Dr's and Ph D's doing their R & D thing to keep me and my family safe so I am their unlikely advocate. I can see how things are going to play themselves out because a great deal of human behavior is all about money, you may not like it but needing stuff and obtaining the means to get that stuff we need drives us all day in- day out 24 a day 365 a year.

Hospitals and insurance companies DO NOT fund research - either clinical or non-clinical. Research is funded through the federal government or through non-profit foundations such as The American Cancer Society (in the U.S.). Your payments to insurance companies and hospitals go solely to their bottom lines - salaries for nurses, doctors and other workers, equipment, and other operating expenses.

 

[drag n' fly]

I know people get all whipped up when comparisons are made between our health care systems so I won't even go there. What a craptastic situation for good honest hardworking families down south. Ok I'm done.