I’ll bet every party probably says the same sort of stuff
Patient: I’m just caught in a battle between the hospital and the insurance company
Hospital: We’re just caught in a battle between the patient and the insurance company
Insurance company: We’re just caught in a battle between the patient and the hospital
You’d think that would inspire the stakeholders to say, “You know what, this system is kind of shit. We should do something else”. But it doesn’t, for a variety of reasons.
They didn’t bill me. They billed my mom who has Medicare. Medicare was always 100% paying for the things she was billed for, which I only discovered by spending hours going through stacks of paperwork. This wasn’t some thing where Medicare paid and they billed her the remaining balance. She has no credit for anything. It’s just Karens blaming computers for “billing errors” and telling you to call different Karens. Still not resolved.
but at the end of the day, the insurer is the one at fault, not my hospital, even if their billing practices are scummy - I do not put the blame entirely on them, they are running a business, I guess, even if it shouldn’t be one, that is the nature of things, but an insurer is supposed to INSURE. Not skirt around paying like some degen that won’t pay a gambling debt.
I guess what I’d be curious about is
If date 1 is long before date 2 and date 2 is long before date 3, then I don’t think anything nefarious happened.
The most fucked up thing would if date 2 was after date 3. There are other scenarios that are varying degrees of fucked up.
Also if they don’t have a credit on her account and actually got two payments, then they are either evil or very sloppy.
Well, I don’t want to sound like I’m stanning for big insurance, but I guarantee you that the insurance company would also tell you that “they are running a business” too.
If you’re so curious, I’ll send you hundreds of pages of documents and you can spend several hours (minimum) getting to the bottom of it.
I acutally need only two:
False, DUCY?
I meant I only need two to satisfy my curiosity. “Getting to the bottom of it” is a different matter.
“Getting an actual solution takes hours and hours of your time.” Yeah great point. Also,
None of the double billing here is by a doctor’s office. It’s two different medical device vendors who have no expectation of repeat business from her, and she certainly had no credits to her name when calling. So where do you think that money goes?
Caught in the crossfire of patient battles? And you really believe that the stakeholders who are printing money hand over fist would like to propose scrapping the system?
It sounds like they fall in to this category that I mentioned earlier:
Also as I mentioned earlier
It sounds like based on your interactions thus far, you believe it’s the former. That’s highly plausible. I don’t doubt it at all.
Of course not. That’s likely the biggest of the various reasons:
Maybe you’re taking the “You’d think” part a bit too literally. I didn’t think anyone here actually thought that. It’s all just bullshit that they (insurance companies mostly) say, because they don’t want to do anything about it. Of course most of the providers don’t really want to do anything about it. Even some of the patients don’t want to do anything (the “I like my insurance and I want to keep it just like it is even if it means everyone else gets fucked” folks).
At the end of the day all any of these parties have as leverage is sending you to collections. Which, medical collections don’t ruin your credit anymore (I think). May as well just tell everyone to fuck off just like the insurance companies do without consequence.
yea it will ding your credit but not much. I had one bill I couldn’t pay pre-ACA that I just let drop off after 7 years, but even before then, my credit wasn’t bad.
I had an ambulance bill go to collections when I was poor 7 or 8 years ago. Definitely killed my credit.
Believe this has changed recently
With the new reporting policy announced, this debt will not appear on your credit score for one entire year. After that one year passes, your credit score will then be dinged if what you owe is over $500.
Also if your medical bill is paid off it has to be removed.
Here is really awesome scenario I just ran into. I take medication that costs about $6,300/month for four weekly doses. My insurance covers 80%, leaving about a $1,250/month copay. I have a copay assistance card through the drug manufacturer that cover the $1,250 copay. The copay assistance is limited (I think around $10,000 annually). In prior years the copay assistance payments counted against the insurance out of pocket maximum, so when the card benefits were exhausted, the insurance covered the copay for the rest of the year. Apparently, the insurance company now excludes any “drug manufacturer coupons” being applied to medical deductible or out of pocket maximums. So, I’ll either need to go out of pocket for the copay rest of the year (not likely due to the cost) or ration the 5 doses I have left until the card benefits reset on 1/1/2023. Great fucking system.
Front page
In 2018, senior executives at one of the country’s largest nonprofit hospital chains, Providence, were frustrated. They were spending hundreds of millions of dollars providing free health care to patients. It was eating into their bottom line.
The executives, led by Providence’s chief financial officer at the time, devised a solution: a program called Rev-Up.
Rev-Up provided Providence’s employees with a detailed playbook for wringing money out of patients — even those who were supposed to receive free care because of their low incomes, a New York Times investigation found.
In training materials obtained by The Times, members of the hospital staff were instructed how to approach patients and pressure them to pay.
“Ask every patient, every time,” the materials said. Instead of using “weak” phrases — like “Would you mind paying?” — employees were told to ask how patients wanted to pay. Soliciting money “is part of your role. It’s not an option.”
If patients did not pay, Providence sent debt collectors to pursue them.