Lol most places who offer "workplace psych," is bs. They do a survey for burnout, give you 3 to 5 sessions of solution focus brief discussion and recommend more visits.... therapy afterwards is not covered at all, can be turned in for reimbursement, but is usually denied and asked to bill to workman's comp......... once it hits workman's comp, you are automatically denied unless you do a UA. Which is not confidential even though one sign of burn out is SUD, or relapsing.... for profit place will go directly to your board and report you for patient endangerment instead of starting a recovery plan...... which ALL companies have the capability for it.
Bold of you to assume it is a system. It is more like a hodge-podge of users and payers and middlemen and government agencies and insurance and administrators and regulatory agencies and middlemen and other people that are hard to label them into a specific category.
I work in a pharmacy and have to explain to people how their insurance works pretty much all day every day. I tell a lot of people that it really is intentionally made to be confusing, so that ultimately their insurance company is able to make more money from them. Every time i tell someone they need a PA and they ask what that is, i always preface it with a "so this is gonna sound pretty stupid but..." and that usually keeps people from getting mad at me directly haha. American healthcare system is a nightmare in every way.
Yeah, I work in dental insurance so I try REALLY REALLY HARD to explain their plan while their on the phone. I just had a caller who needed a PA FOR TRANSPORTATION. like COME ON. They (not my company but the members health insurance) provide 75 miles one way, so one appointment is TWO ONE WAY TRIPS which they only get 24 of a year, and the office was 40 miles away and they STILL wanted a PA from the office for the distance... Then there are the offices, especially out of network ones, who just don't wanna do the work then charge their patients who have no idea they even need a PA and we wouldn't accept one from them anyway! Or how about the ones who bill for immediate dentures advertising them as temporary ones then try to bill 6 months later for a complete set and we deny cause they share a friggn frequency. DO YA RESEARCH DENTISTS.
I'm a pharmacy tech and I agree that prior auths are super annoying to explain, but I think I hate explaining "the donut hole" with Medicare the most because it's always an older person who needs their f*cking heart medicine SO THEY DONT DIE but a 30 day supply costs them more than they get for an entire month with social security. That's all government BS, too. You'd think Medicare would know that older people are usually on Social security... OH WAIT, they do know that, they just don't actually give a damn about American citizens. They probably actually prefer for grandma/grandpa to die because Medicare wouldn't pay for their heart meds because then they don't have to continue paying for their Healthcare and social security income. I absolutely hate it. 😮💨
@LilyoftheLake14 it's disgusting for sure. There was a short where a hospital doc showed a vial of what would go into an epi pen and for then it's 2 bucks. For the average person though it's now upwards of 700!
I just tell them the insurance company doesn't want to pay for their particular medication and they want additional information from the doctor to justify why it has to be that medication instead of the ones they think should be prescribed.
I’m not gonna lie, the healthcare system and the whole tangle of insurance, co-insurance, deductibles, and everything has been really confusing to me for ages but having someone explain it with all the incredulity it deserves actually helps me understand it better. Like, no, it actually **doesn’t** make sense and **really** sucks, you’re not imagining it.
As a canadian it sounds to me like you have to fill up a meter with money just so you can fill up 5 more with money. And only them will they start paying. You've filled your deductible, co pay, out of pocket max and 10 other things! Now they'll cover you. Oh wait its jan 1, all those things now restart :')
@@andynonymous6769 You forgot to factor in the many companies that change insurance providers every year around September, because their employees tend to fulfill all their co-pays and deductibles around that time and so schedule any needed non-emergency surgeries in the fall and winter. The insurer would then pass these costs along to the company, but new insurer=clean slate for the employer. The employees are screwed and have to begin all over again, and often wait year after year for needed surgeries because of it.
Thank you for talking openly about this. A lot of social media doctors either do not or only occasionally mention how effed the insurance system is. I really appreciate that you call attention to the issues that effect people THE MOST when it comes to getting good Healthcare. Cause it really is all about the cost.
Health Insurers do not determine how much health care costs-Providers do. Health Insurers make healthcare accessible. However you feel about copays, coinsurance or deductibles, they are there to keep premiums affordable. This is the system we have. Take away copays and people will go to the doctor for frivolous reasons. Take away coinsurance and patients have no incentive to seek care in more affordable settings. Take away deductibles and demand for healthcare resources skyrocket and without additional supply, costs skyrocket as well. Someone has to pay for all this, and in the US it is employers. Healthcare coverage is a fringe benefit that is part of your total compensation package. Employers offer insurance to recruit and retain talent. The political will for socialized medicine doesn’t exist. There are 54 Senators from 27 ruby red states that only represent 18% of the US population standing in the way of a filibuster-proof majority (or any majority at all). There is no possibility of a government-sponsored single-payer system in the near future. Also keep in mind that the political capital that Obama spent on the ACA directly resulted in the Tea Party and MAGA. EDIT: I am going to add to this comment because dear doctor keeps deleting it when I try to link to the Forbes.com article listing the 20 highest paid professions in the USA where Ophthalmologists (except pediatric) are #4 while he complains about how stingy insurance companies are. take out the spaces and follow the link. I’m not making this up. Providers drive the cost of healthcare, not insurers. Remember that next time you walk through the physician parking lot at the hospital and it is filled with Lexuses and Mercedes and Porches and Infinitis and Teslas and BMWs. I’m not saying physicians shouldn’t make a good living-we all deserve to make a good living-but to cry poverty because insurance is stingy is misleading. Satirize all you want, but to insist that the problems with US healthcare are entirely the result of the health insurance system is horse$#!+.
Unless you're my brother who works for an insurance company. Then you brag yo everyone you work in Healthcare even though you've never put on a pair of scrubs a day in your life
Only thing missing is that this is usually done as a cost saving measure, if its through work coinsurance based plans are much cheaper when it comes to premiums as the consumer shares the risk. The amount is arbitrary because you are able to select the amount you want based on the plan you select. Rich benefits/ plans cost more, that's just how it is, at the end of the day it's math. The amount at which you stop paying completely in all plans is called your out of pocket maximum. Its very high and is mostly there to stop catastrophic years. Deductible only marks the beginning of cost share. I know insurance can be confusing, but it also gets a lot of misinformation or incomplete information spread about it. What is far more insidious is not these plan design choices you have some control over, its the way many carriers attempt to deny every possible claim. For any reason. And also the way medical professionals are unable to properly code procedures leading to ~1 in 3 medical bills having some error. Insurance sucks, but the issues with the healthcare system are not even mostly because of insurance companies.
@@tvflynnohhhh, so you get to choose whether you want to get shot in the head, kicked in the balls, or burned in a brazen bull, so much better and definitely makes the crimes of healthcare companies not an issue
I'm always excited for open enrollment every year! I have a week to parse through tens of pages of new policy changes. The price went down for similarly listed coverage??? No, now my medication is $400 again instead of $30. But visiting my PCP is $20 until I pay $2000 out of pocket, THEN! Co-insurance of 90% covers those costs! Still not medication, though, so for a whopping $170/check or $350/month, I get to still spend far more! 😊 But if I pay $220/check, medication costs go back down to $45, but maximum out of pocket before co-insursnce goes up to $5k 😢 but then they cover 90% again of everything (excluding eyes and teeth and medication and specialists [but I don't need a referral!]) Afterwards until the new calendar year starts. I also have to call the prescription company to confirm prices will stay the same to *show* HR I made the effort even though I know they will say, "uhhhh, it shouldn't go up, but since the policy changes, I wouldn't know until you have an new account number." (Which means that I am not going to get a solid answer until the policy change is effective, but at that point, I can't change it for another year, so if the cost DOES rise substantially [which, again, my meds cash price is $400+]) AND I take the plan that'd slightly more expensive than I had before, I might pay more for both insurance AND medication! AND IF THATS NOT ENOUGH, I have to get ahold of the nebefits rep for the company whom is impossible to reach because she's got 300 other employees all calling and asking for answers for the same exact questions that change based on the person's age and current situation. Great fucking system. Solid. Definitely the most competitive and best priced in the world.
Holy fvcking shit, I don't have a headache after reading that I have a god damn MIGRAINE. I feel so sorry for guys over in the States, I'm Australian, and because I REALLY don't wish to upset you talking about our system all I will say is that it makes me beyond grateful that I live here.. I hope that it gets better for you guys, I really do. ❤️ ❤
Recently, my sister had routine lab work. The billed amount was $675.37 which they were trying to charge her because they failed to bill the insurance company. AFTER the insurance bill, they _allowed_ $77.50, of which she was responsible for 10%, or 7.50. The doctor's office also incorrectly booked her appt for her pap smear, and then had her make a second appt to come back. They tried to code BOTH visits as a wellness visit. The first was paid for (although they really did nothing for her) and the second then got rejected because two wellness visits in a calendar year wouldn't be paid for. This also then caused the pap and HPV test to be rejected. The facilities tried to bill her over $600 for the second visit and labs. I told her to ask the office to recode the first one as a routine visit ($20 copay) which caused the second claim and labs to be covered 100%. Moral of the story - never write a check until you've been over the bills with a fine tooth comb. Assume something was done wrong. Have a person in your corner who knows the system and the verbiage to use.
And check to be sure the coding is correct. I had several hundred dollars in labs denied because not all of the ICD codes were correct. Once that was resubmitted it was paid.
Same. I'm 6 years behind on women's health, 3 years behind mammograms, I haven't been to the dentist in 8 years and I've never had a skin cancer check. The only thing I'm good on is eye care because they take credit cards at the mall .
@@lh3540😮 that's awful!! You know it's only been through Dr Fleck and through the TikTok complications of "what's the main thing you learnt about the US when living overseas" (or something along those lines) that I have learnt just how bad healthcare is in the US. I used to think that Private Healthcare or Health Insurance still covered your primary healthcare... I knew it was expensive but... Didn't really know just how expensive it was - found out it's a lot more expensive than I even had imagined! I think it's because I was always told by people in the US that it "depends on your health insurance" with what it covers which... It's sorta true. But the horror I've learnt through Dr Fleck (his name is too long and I'm an Aussie 😅😝😂) is that even if it health insurance covers it, they can still deny you the treatment. In comparison, we have private health care and government healthcare... People who can afford it will get private health care (although that's becoming less ATM coz of living costs) and those that can't or don't see the point, will just pay through Medicare (govt) for things like dental as you still pay an out of pocket fee, you just aren't paying for private health each month. Or they go public for things like dentist and optometrist but then go private healthcare for hospital cover. It makes more sense if you don't use the extras cover - this is what it's called for dentist, physio, optometrist etc. But I've always had private health extras because I'm pretty short sighted and need glasses to see long distance. So it makes more sense for me to have it. But even then, we go by the cover number with what's covered and what isn't. And you just claim through the app or online, or you scan it when you use it, and it's fine automatically through your health provider. In comparison with my health cover I get a free check up and clean at the dentist, every 6 months. So I try to go there every 6 months for a check up - unless you now it's urgent or whatever. But my brother is on a pension as he can't work, so he goes through the government health. Things like dental emergency is seen right away (broken crowns, holes, wisdom teeth etc) and things that aren't medical emergencies you have a waiting list depending on when you can be fit in. Most people wait about 3 to 6 months. But it's great coz it costs so much cheaper for low income health care and pensions. I just hope that one day the US can get this bill through to redo healthcare there for everyone. You guys have a right to health care. 😢
@@patrickbarney7054like normal health screenings probably. Physicals, eye checks, hearing checks, dental, prostate, PAP tests, gyno exams, monograms, etc.
I'm beginning to suspect that Jimothy's sole purpose is to be used as a sort of moral measuring stick: if you have an idea and he hates it, it's a go-er.
The goal of insursnce companies is not to go with the most immoral choice everytime. It's to go with the mist profitable choice no matter the morality. But really the end result is hard to tell apart.
This is 100% accurate. I work in healthcare operations and my husband is a physician, a cardiologist to be exact. I’ve worked in his office many times and had to call insurance companies. Patients have no idea nor understand the complexity of their plans. For example, after you meet your $5,000 deductible, you still have 20% coinsurance for all procedures or codes, and the plan will pay 80%. Insurance companies have it all figured out. They never lose.
I mean, the UHC guy is intelligent too, in a way. He's smart enough to know what kind of BS he can get away with. Jimothy has the ethics we need to back up the intelligence. IE, using it for good, instead of evil.
Not a doctor but I run a lab. It is depressing when a health insurance changes policy and suddenly either we can't do certain screenings for those patients or have to pass on the costs to the patient themselves. Right now for United Health Care patients we're having to refer them to a lab out of state that is more expensive because of their changes.
@@bingoboppins9875Yeah, and they would be happy being paid by tax dollars. I work in a lab, with doctors, every day. They all support universal healthcare.
Had a blood clot in my leg and had a vein treatment. My insurance is the hospital I work for and had surgery at. They're now saying it wasn't medically necessary despite saying it was covered over the phone prior. But since they don't actually guarantee benefits over the phone I'm SOL. Was also overcharged thousands which after 2 appeals, heavy gas lighting and a complaint to the state AG they admitted I was right.
The like felt wrong, because I know too well that that treatment was needed. My dad got blood clots in his legs several years ago and some went to his lungs (which is all too common). He was really sick for a while, even after getting out of the hospital.
I had a similar situation with a scheduled surgery. Was told facility was covered prior but was told after that it wasn't and given a $10k bill. Neither insurance nor surgery center would take responsibility. So I hired a lawyer and it got resolved. (The surgery center footed the bill, certainly not the insurance company 😶)
@@Crymeariver227I feel so terrible for people who can't navigate the system because, you know, they're ill and struggling to live. Who has the mental space to deal with insurance and appeals when you're in a health crisis? 🤦♀️
MERKA!!!! the land of twice as expensive health services for half the benefit. It brings a tear to my eye how beautiful it is for the uber wealthy. Thank god for them and their private jets. What would we do without them, except prosper? And no one wants that. NO one.
If you want Wegovy for obesity, then being overweight is just cosmetic. If you want them to pay for knee surgery, losing weight is a first line suggestion. They'll try for anything to avoid paying for stuff.
@kathleencardincpm4435 "I'm sorry, sir, but the effect of not having cancer has caused you to smile more, which your plan considers a cosmetic effect."
Greetings from Germany, our Healthcare is somewhat f'd up in its own way (long waiting times, not many doctors in rural areas and overworked staff almost everywhere) but you guys take it to a whole other level
Private insurance in Germany (yes, it exists): You pay your monthly premiums, then pay your deductible out of pocket if you have it (typically in the 500€-1000€/year range). After that, full coverage. Private insurance is mostly taken by Beamte (officers of the state) or people that have a lot of income (as public health insurance is income based, while private is health risk based). So people that have money. It also gives faster processing times, other benefits, and it covers more procedures than public insurance. Even then, when you go to the hospital, you don't get the bills, your health insurance get it directly; instead of bills that you get and then forward to year insurer, like for procedures. Just because the hospital bill would be a lot to pay at once with the wait to get the money back from your insurer. They typically take 3-5 weeks to process your requests. For reference, getting out all my wisdom teeth as a non-hospital procedure was ~600€. It's not private health insurance that's the problem in the US - it works in other countries. Your WHOLE system is fucked, top to bottom.
@@Succulentquarter Also there is technically a way you can end up on medical dept/ "without health inssurance" if you fuck up beuocracy stuff BUT you will ALWAYS have health inssurance to cover life saving procedures you cannot end up in crippilng medical dept by being in a car accident and getting life saving surgery because the last inssurence company that has you in their system will pay for the Ambulance, the surgery and your hospital stay and at least with the non-private inssurence companys the only thing you'll have to pay are the standart 10€ for the Ambulence and an additional 10€ per day in the hospital wich caps a 280€ per year or a maximum of 290€ This also applys for stays at mental health clinics if your in acute danger of unaliving yourself
You're not wrong, but ultimately the best chance to fix these problems still lies with any politicians who actually do give a crap about doing the right thing. So it might be a bit counter-productive to make a video bashing politicians unless there's a very clear distinction that it's only certain ones.
The honesty of any organization you are going to do business with is inversely proportional to the length and complexity of any contract they expect you to sign. Honest and well-intentioned people don't need many words to come to an agreement among one other.
Greetings from Finland, where healthcare is mainly free or low cost (although many problems with accessibility still persist). Let's create a world where mental and physical healthcare are recognized as human rights ❤
Not all plans are like this but it doesn’t make good content to say “choose the correct healthcare plan for you based on how you live and procedures you may need in the future.” 😐
@@Nathan-yl8zy I get that, but I recon there are insurance brokers, who have incentive to sell the shittier plans to people who may not have the time/knowledge to choose any better as well.
Don't forget to add on the processing fees! And deflate the price of a procedure every time an appeal is requested! Oh, and don't forget the administration fees, they can be added on at any time!
@@Descriptor413 Oh sorry, I've worked with insurance companies for so long that I already know their tactics. But the good news is I've been able to create some counter strikes! It's always fun when you can beat them at their own game!😉
Just don't get depressed watching all these videos because you know damn well that benefit won't be covered by your insurance :) Can't wait for the rest of the series, and at the same time I hate that this series has so much to talk about.
Once again, you've "nailed it!!!" ☺️ ....If only people would truly open their eyes and understand what's going on with health care, or should I say "health-lack-of-care?!" 😥
I love your work. As a person who is new to the whole health insurance game, I understand what’s going on and how this stuff works so much more than I did before.
Thank you for making these skits! I like learning about medicine as a practice but it’s also just as insightful to learn about medicine as a business (even if it makes me wanna cry lol). Not enough professional talk about this side of it.
Don’t kid yourself. Every country is having these issues. Yes, even those with universal healthcare. In Europe, get in line and don’t expect to be helped for months if at all. Remember, you get what you pay for.
@@PositiveZ7you generally dont wait for long if you've got a serious issue. I'll take a wait rather than spending several months salary at best if i get cancer anyday.
9 месяцев назад
Where are these lines or no help at all? I have a rare condition and was diagnosed within 6 months here in Europe, whereas my fellow sufferers in USA generally have to fight +2 years before getting diagnosed. I need surgery once or twice a year because of that condition and would go bancrupt if I lived in America. I have no problem getting my surgeries within a timely fashion and also don't have to worry about any bills for them. I also needed another surgery this year, acdf on my neck. Was in the operating room 1,5 month after having seen the specialist. And the waiting period to meet him was only two months. @@PositiveZ7
@@PositiveZ7There’s plenty of waiting in the United States, too. I recently had a five month wait for a dermatology appointment, and there I only saw a (clueless) resident. The attending physician couldn’t even take five minutes to confirm that we were on the right path. (Now because of all that ensuing mess, I’m in limbo waiting to see if insurance will cover everything I want.)
Yeah it’s bad. I always look into that shit when I have a renewal and think “fuck man I can’t even remember the differences between the options”. The self-fulfilling cycle of not paying and doctors charging more has gotten out of hand.
This definitely hit home. Spent a few nights in the hospital 2 years ago and a bunch of follow up treatments. Ive read my plan but the coinsurance literally, not once, lined up with what was written. It was always by a seemingly arbitrary amount. I'd pay for things I shouldn't, not pay for things I should. Then the random out of network charges for some random doctor that was there one of the nights and had looked at my test results and said "hi" once. I'm lucky my employer has really good paid insurance but it was like reading myself as a case study from my college days in how horribly opaque and inefficient US Healthcare is.
My ex girlfriends dad had a lot of health problems and hit his max deductible for the year once, he ended up just going through a gauntlet of random tests because they were free (he had an MRI, dental x-rays, normal x-rays, cat scan, and more)
@@Nathan-yl8zy most insurances do have a copay though, it really just depends. The only reason that guy even hit his max was because he got hit by a car cycling twice in a year, and had to get some pretty nasty surgeries on his spine
Why pay 10% of your income to taxes for public healthcare when you can pay the same thing in fees to your insurance companies with no guarantee that they’ll keep you solvent if you have a medical emergency!
Depends on who you’re referring to when you say “the richest country in the world.” If by that you mean the insurance companies, then yes, they are the richest. The rest of us-not so much.
@@GiraffeFeaturesFreedom is the solution to this problem get rid of the bloated US government and the amount of Corruption in the DoD not to mention amount of wasted money that our representatives get after already taking bribes for cushy spots in big pharma
God, I remember the first time I called an insurance company and was told that our patient had met their deductible but they still owed 30% of their cost. I was so confused, and I definitely owe a CSR somewhere an apology. 😂 Insurance was half the reason I left medical offices.
Honestly what is the point of health insurance if I am still having to pay - I already pay 1500 a month in premiums for my entire family, now I have have to pay for office visits, co pays for everything else and half my meds arent even covered. Its almost not worth having it.
I can’t wait for when you tell everyone how much money universal healthcare would save EVERYONE and only sink insurance companies!! You’ll be part of the reason we get it!! By spreading the information on it all!!! ❤❤❤❤
@@dawn19mariaso because it doesn’t work the best, it’s worth people dying because they’re poor instead of working on bettering it after we implement it? In what world does that make sense? Because you personally can afford it?
@@dawn19maria the VA doesn’t work well because the insurance companies we already have are not making money off of them so they put less funding and efforts into it. If the WHOLE system were universal, insurance companies wouldn’t be funneling money to everything else but the VA. Would you like to hear how it actually works because with that comment, you don’t understand, and have not actually looked into how it works.
@@dawn19mariauniversal healthcare did improve outcomes for...say every country in europe, just to start though. How would stopping companies from making billions in profit not leave more money for better healthcare?
We need more of these!!! Do one about HMOs and having to designate a PCP. And how the insurance company constantly changes your PCP without asking… or let’s you designate your PCP as a doctor who doesn’t actually accept your plan. Or maybe about the nightmare of recredentialing or contracting So much potential here
I don’t know if this is something you can fix for future videos, but the RU-vid shorts UI is so cluttered and bad that the captions are basically useless. Maybe try putting them more on the top? Could be nice for us audio processing trouble girlies
The corporations have all the money, and they're allowed to use that money to pay off politicians to support a legal structure that will continue to funnel the wealth generated by the working class into the pockets of the wealthy. Imagine how you would feel if you read Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and thus understood the theory of natural selection, then you saw people walking around staring in befuddled wonder at how all these animals are so highly adapted for their various environs. That's what it's like for people who have read Marx when they hear people questioning how society got to this point. The theory has been clearly delineated, we just don't teach it to people in America, because politicians determine what standards of education there are for public schools, and again, politicians are being paid off by the wealthy with their unimaginably vast sums of unearned wealth.
Because our politicians are allowed to take unlimited campaign donations and they're all on the take. We don't have a government, we have an extortion mafia.
I don't use the word hate lightly, but after 20 years of dealing with health insurance within my career, I absolutely HATE the American Healthcare System!
Thank you for bringing this into light. I don't live in the USA. We used to have and still have but in theory social health care system. This is what they are after for everywhere. It seems like this will be our future too and it's so disgusting
Oh Jimmothy! I got another great idea. It is called “out of network” and we will require them to pay twice what in-network rates are and the deductible and co-insurance will not carry over from in-network. Also we will have something called a copay that will just be equal to whatever the doctor normally charges his non-insured patients.
Oh they don't answer questions. They spend half the day with people who are crying at the window because their drugs ran out and got denied. I have never once been in line at a pharmacy where someone wasn't sobbing.
Can confirm, half my job is explaining to people why their medicine costs $2 more this month, or why they suddenly have to pay a lot in January. (for Medicare, the donut hole starts hitting around July. Try explaining all this to a senior who already can't think very well). Or they say that their insurance told them something is covered, but insurance is still blocking it with a Prior Authorization.
My goodness I’m in the UK and SO grateful for our national health service ♥️ We do pay for it, an amount out of our salaries each month but not a ludicrous amount and linked to how much you actually earn and then healthcare is free at point of service. No massive bills or anything. I’m getting an ultrasound of a lump this month and I won’t have ANY bill for it.
When I called Aetna about why they refused a CAC scan of my heart (refused BECAUSE I was having symptoms) the nice service rep told me I would need to call someone else to get a diagnostic code. She even offered to call them for me while I held on the line. Wasn't that nice? I almost forgot that they were still holding a gun to my head. Of course, once I got the diagnostic code, Aetna refused it.
I work with home health prior authorizations and eligibility (Look man I don't agree with it but they keep me fed) and its pretty bad for non-medicare qualifying patients. The Out of pocket amounts have also been skyrocketing. For those who don't know, Out of Pocket max is what took the place of deductible. Once you meet that your insurance will pay fully even if their is a copay pr coinsurance (if prior auth is obtained 😶 another stupid catch). Out of pocket Max amounts for standard Medicare type plans through United Healthcare were 7500. In 2023 is was raised to 8300, and now its 8850. A word of advice if choosing through United Healthcare for a commercial policy and you are not medicare qualified, never get the Exchange plans, they have lots of string attached. Stick with the UHC Choice or Choice Plus plans if you have to. Also if you do end up medicare qualified you will be asked to choose a PCP (Primary Care Provider), it is not required, but they will encourage you to do so, doing so will cause you to be out of network more often than not or add more string attached with prior authorization.
My wife had her appendix removed for acute appendicitis. Procedure goes well, all the bills get paid, and we think all is well. NOPE! a year later a medical records company arbitrarily decided that we didn't pay anything and own althea complete balance of our bill. Thank God my wife kept the old bills and printed the digital receipts back when we paid. Still took almost a year before the company decided that we were right and had already paid our bills
