The Death of a Thousand Cuts.

[Tom Joad]

OK, so a few weeks back my wife had to have some fairly minor outpatient surgery.

She was in the hospital for maybe a couple of hours.

Went under anesthesia for I dunno, 20-30 minutes maybe.

Routine, no complications. I stayed on the BCBS family group plan from work after I retired. It's expensive but it beats the Hell out of what I could get under Obummercare. I checked. The co-pays and deductables are lower. The cost for her portion of the coverage is $677 a month.

Anyway, even though we have pretty good insurance the doctors office wanted $300 bucks up front and then the Hospital wanted another $300. I asked the insurance lady at the doctors office if I would get a refund if my portion of the bill after insurance was less than $300 and she just kinda laughed at me and said "sure".

Anyway this week the bills started coming in.

Drip, drip, drip, drip.

Four so far.

They are small after the insurance payments, and "adjustments".

$53, $29, $30, and $22, but so far these are coming from places I've never heard of.

One from a local lab here in Mobile, one from some place in Cincinnati, and two from Atlanta. WTF! And so far nothing from he Doctor that did the procedure or the Hospital. I wonder how many fucking bills I'll get total and what the grand total dollar amount will be? I mean how many people are going to come out of the woodwork like cockroaches to get a piece of the action for a routine minor surgical procedure? These people have already gotten a nice chunk of change from my insurance company but that's not enough for them. They want more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIxnW_nB4Lk

I'm already up over $700 and this is with excellent BCBS Group insurance that costs $677 a month to cover one person.

[barbara]

Evidently you haven't had a whole lot of interaction with the world of health care.

Don't pay any bills until after your insurance has paid their part.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by barbara

Evidently you haven't had a whole lot of interaction with the world of health care.

Don't pay any bills until after your insurance has paid their part.

No, I've had plenty of experience with this. And it's almost always the same. I just decided to have myself a rant about it this time. I have had bills come months and months later, long after I thought everything must have been paid. And no, I never pay until I am sure insurance has paid. I often call insurance to make sure they are not going to pay any more and I ask them to explain why if I don't understand it. The four bills I got this week are all what's left after insurance.

[merrylander]

Tom my Florence died back in October 2015 and I am still getting statements from CareFirst BCBS of people submitting bills for God alone knows what. Most have been denied by medicare or so reduced in size that CFBCBS pays the balance. Hell I had at least 16 doctors claim that they had attended her while she was in Howard County General and that was pure BS.. While she was in Medstar Montgomery it was worse.

Well I would not send my worst enemy to Medstar and I will think twice about sending any of my cats to HCGH.

Welcome to our healthcare system.

[MrPots]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

OK, so a few weeks back my wife had to have some fairly minor outpatient surgery.

She was in the hospital for maybe a couple of hours.

Went under anesthesia for I dunno, 20-30 minutes maybe.

Routine, no complications. I stayed on the BCBS family group plan from work after I retired. It's expensive but it beats the Hell out of what I could get under Obummercare. I checked. The co-pays and deductables are lower. The cost for her portion of the coverage is $677 a month.

Anyway, even though we have pretty good insurance the doctors office wanted $300 bucks up front and then the Hospital wanted another $300. I asked the insurance lady at the doctors office if I would get a refund if my portion of the bill after insurance was less than $300 and she just kinda laughed at me and said "sure".

Anyway this week the bills started coming in.

Drip, drip, drip, drip.

Four so far.

They are small after the insurance payments, and "adjustments".

$53, $29, $30, and $22, but so far these are coming from places I've never heard of.

One from a local lab here in Mobile, one from some place in Cincinnati, and two from Atlanta. WTF! And so far nothing from he Doctor that did the procedure or the Hospital. I wonder how many fucking bills I'll get total and what the grand total dollar amount will be? I mean how many people are going to come out of the woodwork like cockroaches to get a piece of the action for a routine minor surgical procedure? These people have already gotten a nice chunk of change from my insurance company but that's not enough for them. They want more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIxnW_nB4Lk

I'm already up over $700 and this is with excellent BCBS Group insurance that costs $677 a month to cover one person.

The missus had a mole removed. We've received three bills so far......

Totalling about half our monthly heath insurance bill, so it's substantial.

We both need crowns and have dental insurance, but the co-pays are so high it's pretty much like having no insurance.

My yearly allowable doctor appointment is coming up. He has to write my prescriptions for a full year because insurance only pays for one visit a year.... and doctor visits are too much to pay out of pocket in addition to the monthly insurance premium. So my one allowable visit cost me about $7,000 total out of pocket.

Yup...Obamacare did fucking nothing to cut health care costs..... a give-away to the insurance industry is all it was.

[Oerets]

Hope the wife is doing OK now.

Yes Single Payer/Medicare for all would of been better then this giveaway to insurance companies.

In a battle right now with a hospital over my wife's Gall Bladder surgery. Sent her home and less then six hours later we were back in the ER. They wants us to pay for them sending her home early. NUTS!



Barney

[barbara]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

No, I've had plenty of experience with this. And it's almost always the same. I just decided to have myself a rant about it this time. I have had bills come months and months later, long after I thought everything must have been paid. And no, I never pay until I am sure insurance has paid. I often call insurance to make sure they are not going to pay any more and I ask them to explain why if I don't understand it. The four bills I got this week are all what's left after insurance.

If you have had lots of interaction with the health care system then you should know that your wife's insurance isn't all that expensive and the costs of medical procedures are extremely expensive no matter how minor the procedure.

I'm glad to hear you don't pay those bills until after the ins has done their part.



Years ago when my boys were in the NICU, when we got the first bill, for one child, for six weeks, it was $ 650,000. ( that was in 1979)

Both boys spent about three years in and out of the hospital.

When they were eleven, husband became disabled and has been in and out of hospitals since then.

There ain't much about health care that surprises me anymore.