My grandma always said the same thing in the 70s, and Medicare and SS are still here. Although SS doesn’t pay for shit.
Talk about getting screwed by inflation. Sorry our heavily-big-screen-TV-weighted inflation index indicates no inflation for SS again this year.
Quite a big difference between conservatives from 1970-2010 and 2010 to present. Most of them back then knew that they didn’t actually want to catch the car they were chasing. Now, they want to catch it, jack it, chop it up, and part it out.
Not sure what you mean by this. Social Security is tremendously valuable. Just because it doesn’t cover 100% of living expenses in retirement doesn’t mean it “doesn’t pay for shit”. It’s an essential lifeline for hundreds of thousands or not millions of Americans.
Interesting writeup comparing the different wealthy country healthcare systems
The comments on wait times in Canada ring true. It’s the #1 complaint that Canadians have about our system.
So you’re ready to scrap your system for the USA #1 system right? That’s what FoxNews tells me.
This story is going viral and it’s fucking annoying:
The basic story here is that a child burned their hand and showed up with what ended up being a pretty minor burn. They were seen by a nurse practitioner who, it seems like, saw the patient and called a surgeon (guessing plastics but it can vary) to see the burn (guessing because it’s a hand burn, those can be touch and go).
After waiting ‘more than an hour’ - whatever that means - they go home and are surprised they still get billed.
There’s lots of fair criticisms you can make here, but the headline of ‘the doctor didn’t show up’ is complete bullshit.
Everything is consumer culture in USA No. 1. Doctor doesn’t show up in one hour = the waiter didn’t take our drink order fast enough = I DEMAND TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER!
plz elaborate
let’s all keep in mind that ikes has a financial interest in being able to collect fees from patients he doesn’t interact with
Ms. JordanIB has been doing appointments on one of those online psych/mental health apps. $75/visit every 3-4 weeks for pretty much the last year. I’m not sure if they ever had our insurance info (and neither is she) - I don’t believe they did.
On the last visit, she provided our new insurance info. The cost was now ~$130, which seems like it was an estimated cost by the provider, since I later got an EOB which says “You May Owe” ~$160.
I need to do more digging, but on the face of it, it seems like having “insurance” doubled the cost of this service.
I waited fucking 7 hours in the ER with a dislocated hip for an orthopedic surgeon to pop it back into place. It was fucking agony because I basically had to threaten the workers with a malpractice lawsuit if I didn’t get any morphine to take the edge off the pain.
Never thought to get NPR to write about it though. Might have worked better than ranting about suing the hospital.
I actually don’t get paid anymore or less based on if I see a patient. Other ER docs do but I do not. I suppose there’s a baseline needed so that I have a job, but this won’t come close to making or breaking me.
Most importantly, this child saw the equivalent of me immediately. They saw the NP who called a burn specialist. So it’s not applicable to me whatsoever.
Even in facilites where the ER doctor is paid in part in volume (very common) and who leave before seeing the ER doctor (which isn’t this case), the ER doctor doesn’t get paid. It’s a facility fee that goes to the hospital and not the ER group which is entirely separate. (At least, this is the most common setup)
So how bout an apology for the baseless attack?
Yeah I vaguely remember us talking about that. They really fucked that up.
From the article
“ The nurse’s assessment of Martand cost $192, which was discounted by UnitedHealthcare to a negotiated rate of $38.92.”
The remainder is billed as a “facility fee.” So it’s technically correct that they weren’t billed for the doctor but this is mostly just typical technicality stuff that Ike’s loves to argue semantics about. Saying it’s “total bullshit” is basically correct - it’s an indictment of the entire system
“Sure we bent this patient over but we had a bunch of lawyers do it within a Byzantine system that nobody but our lawyers and accountants understand so pay up” is definitely the answer we all expected
PVN’s argument (I assume) is basically bolded. Obviously a single encounter isn’t going to make or break you. But if it happens on the reg and in volume, that revenue loss will trickle down. Even if you are a salaried employee. Having said that, I still don’t think this is a huge incentive that weighs in the decision-making process of the typical ER doc. So, you’re both right in some sense.
This might be sicker than any ikes burn I’ve ever attempted to make.
Facility fees suck. Son’s collarbone broke and not knowing what to do went to the ER. Fastest in and out of an ER and payed a pretty penny for some aspirin and an x ray. Facility fees aren’t the fault of doctors and a kind of sense in an abstract sense. They’re just flat fees applied per user so you’re not charging people per hour spent sitting in an ER room. The economics of healthcare make it suck though. A thousand bucks just to walk through the door.
Oh bullshit, pvn said that I wanted to be able to not see a patient and still get paid. The ER person saw this patient. He, and now you, have no idea what you’re talking about.
And lol I supervise NPs I’m not sure what you think the burn is. Their work is my work, and my liability, when I’m in that role