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yet another Microsoft blogger

# Wednesday, November 07, 2007

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The health care industry is crazy

Our daughter was born a year ago. This week my wife got a call from the hospital trying to get payment from our insurance company for something or other.

A full year as gone by!

Not even the government is that slow.

It reminds me of the benefits statement we got from the insurance company a few months after the birth. My wife had a normal delivery (no complications, no c-section, in and out in 48 hours). The bill said something like:

Delivery etc: $20,000

Negotiated Charge: $4,995

WTF.

Rant
Posted Thursday, November 08, 2007    Permalink    Comments [8]  View blog reactions

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Wednesday, November 07, 2007 10:20:51 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Its not the "industry", its the REGULATION of the "industry". If looking for the cause, look no further than your government.
boo
Wednesday, November 07, 2007 11:11:54 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
at the opposite end of the spectrum: i used to work for Time/Warner and had really jamming health coverage through United Healthcare. I went to the ER one day with a very high fever that turned out to be pneumonia and landed in the hospital for 9 days.

Hospital + Doctor bill = $84,000
My cost = $100

good for me, but again...WTF.
andreas
Wednesday, November 07, 2007 11:13:55 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
ok i don't think i actually meant "opposite end of the spectrum" but it sounds good in a discussion, doesn't it? ;)
andreas
Thursday, November 08, 2007 1:48:46 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
We just had a baby five weeks ago and got a bill for $1000 for an upper GI my wife supposedly had during delivery which was related to some phantom pre-existing condition. It draws into question all of the billing for her entire stay.
Steve Trefethen
Thursday, November 08, 2007 8:47:39 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
My buddies in the health care industry (which is a whopping three people) tell me that the negotiated rate is causing some serious pain for doctors. Some offices are going so far as to stop accepting insurance from some of the most effective "negotiators" because the processing costs are about equivalent to the payment, not to mention the business overhead.

Those negotiated rates are going to come back to bite us in the butt, a bite, mind you, that'll be tough to treat unless you're paying cash...
JohnT
Thursday, November 08, 2007 2:53:31 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
your right JohnT. I have a doctor in the family who has gone "cash only". This appears to be a growing trend (cash-only) once the doctor has enough patient population to make it viable. And all brought on by "negotiated rates". If carried to its logical conclusion... those of us with insurance will be forced to use FRESH/NEW/INEXPERIENCED doctors, as the ones with demonstrated competence will quickly convert to cash-only.
boo
Friday, November 09, 2007 2:06:22 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Is that really crazy? If anything, the insurance company has an incentive to take as long as they possibly can to pay the hospital.

The dailykos had a bad experience too lately:

http://www.decheung.com/2007/11/medical-insurance-insanity-and-kos.html
Dennis
Thursday, November 15, 2007 8:04:30 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Hah. My funny story is this: Four years ago my wife went for a few sessions at a fertility clinic. Didn't work out (we later got pregnant naturally). A few months ago, we got a bill from the clinic for $300 or so. My wife called, and she got the billing person. "Oh sorry, we see that we have billed you incorrectly. We will send a new bill out." Two weeks later, a new bill comes. $1018. Ok. Not a good trend. My wife calls again. Different person. "Oh yea. We didn't include the insurance payment. Your final total is $17. Would you like to pay that now and close your account?"
Bipin Sen
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