The American healthcare system is built to extract money as it's first priority, not necessarily patient care ☹though it's understandable why people think it's the opposite.
@@Joe-- it's actually to determine a possible way to diagnose you for a lifelong subscription illness with several accompanying prescriptions. Chronic profit extraction triage.
@@mikezupancic2182 Irrelevant to the point that the US healthcare system is lacking compared to other developed countries. The problem is insurance US companies themselves in conjunction with the system.
@Joe until obamacare, the US health system was #1 in the workd in many categories of care, including cancer survival and even time to be seen by a doctor. Statistically you got seen quicker in the US than anywhere else in the world.
I went to a hospital once for a few stitches. I got 3 bills. 1. I got it and paid it 2. I got the bill, but it didn’t have my insurance attached. So it was higher than it would have been. I told them my insurance, the total was reduced by 90% and I paid my share 3. They didn’t have my address and sent it straight to debt collectors. When I asked the hospital, they blamed for not giving them any contact information. When I pointed out they got the other two bills to me just fine, they couldn’t give me an answer
They tried doing that to me about a year and a half ago when I had to go into the hospital for pancreatitis with no insurance (was covered under Maryland Medicaid because I have no income and are living on an inheritance). Sent me 3 bills... 2 were marked 'paid in full by MediCaid'... the other was marked "Not covered by insurance" but the insurance they tried to bill it to was the insurance I had another 18 months beforehand and dropped because it was too expensive to keep. When I called them back, they tried that "I'd given them no information for billing!" and I called them out on it, reminding them that I had been working with a social worker based in the hospital in question who I had given my home address, my e-mail address, my cell phone number, and even the names/numbers of 3 relatives. They changed their tune real quick and rebilled the service to MediCaid and I ended up only having to pay 30 dollars for that service.
Who has to pay to go to the doctors. Only one G30 nation that doesn’t have universal healthcare. The wealthiest most powerful country in the history of the world. Can’t figure out how to tax the wealthy so you can have universal healthcare. One time I had to pay for parking. It was $7. That’s the most I’ve ever paid
@gcanada3005 the other countries that have the insurance you are referring to pay for those services largely on middle class to foot the bill. NOT the wealthy.
For me the scariest thing is. Apparently they can send you straight to collections, and if a lawyer can't find a remedy what hope do the rest of us have? I hope your credit score never notices.
More and more of us are tired of this system and just don't care. Home ownership is out of the question for years to come, and I can buy any used vehicle cash. I don't need credit for anything other then high income jobs extremely rarely and services like internet that don't really care regardless of score. I can't think of a single time I have used my credit in my 25 years of life. I luckily have a grandfather who has loaned me 3k for a car down payment once. I guess that one I would have used credit for MAYBE. Anyway, my point is I don't care and they can send what ever they want to collections. They can't even call me lol. I don't have a phone number by choice. My job uses messenger. I'm sure many MANY people like me also wouldn't even notice for years if they had something outstanding.
@@FeedMeSalt I agree. After a death of a near relative, I asked the hospital to consolidate the bills, so I wouldn't have to write five different checks for bills from each stay. I was paying the hospital 500 a month, plus paying several doctors. The hospital said sure, so I wrote one check, included all the different bills in the envelope and sent it off. The next month they sent two of the bills to collections. I told the collection agency, no dice, I'm not paying you. I would have paid off the hospital, but not after they sent the bills to collections, so they just lost out. It's been over twenty years, and my credit is great. But I remember telling the collection agency do your worst. I already had a car, credit cards, and a house. Didn't need credit.
@@TheKatyMadison I'm of the same sentiment as you and the previous commenter. However, the ushering in of social credit scoring is going to start adjusting our price on things depending on our credit. That's what I fear this issue is. A see what we can get from this guy type billing
Always get an itemized bill. Tell those debt collectors you are officially challenging your bill and they are not allowed to report to the credit agencies while you are disputing the bill.
This actually is more common than a lot of people realize. My neighbors do Medical Billing and Coding from their home office, and they have at least two medical facilities that they do billing for that have zero bookeeping ability in their office - which just blows my mind. BTW - I had an incident with a small urgent care facility several years ago that was almost exactly the same scenario as this!
I concur with you, having worked at an HCA facility billing office and see this very often. one of the causes is it needs to be coded by a medical coder for the billing department to apply the charge.
One tip for dealing with a vertigo attack is to sit in a corner, so you can feel the floor and two walls (3 different planes at 90 degrees from each other). Your proprioception will then help your brain resolve the difference in signals from your eyes and ears, and can still help if even you close your eyes. Hopefully you won't need to use this trick, but I wanted to put it out there for anyone who might find it useful.
Did medical billing for 29 yrs. Before practices went to Electronic Medical Records, this was not nearly as much of an issue.The Dr marked the paper with what was done, and you paid either your copay or deductible, or just cash if no insurance. But you have to understand that every single thing they do has a procedure code, and that code is what determines the $ (both what they charge and what insurance "allows"). With Electronic Medical Records, they can't tell you those amounts bc the system generates everything. Also, if you need an MRI, CT Scan, etc... always ask for the "cash price" if you have a high deductible. In our cases, we would have had to pay almost 3x more than the "cash price" was if we had it go through insurance. It all sucks for sure!
I've never been to an urgent care, but when receiving medical services, the cost has ALWAYS been a mystery. Sometimes I don't know for 9-10 months how much a medical service cost.
@@tekkigizmo they precisely know how much they charge to non covered patient. They take what treatment costs and multiply it by the insurance discount. Because that is important: The guy working at the insurance needs to negotiate large discounts and the hospital needs to operate. So to offer huge discounts, the hospital just inflates the base cost.
My son had emergency surgery at an in-network hospital with in network doctors and I was still getting bills for over two years. Nobody at the hospital or my insurance company could tell me how much I owed or when the bills would stop.
The US health system always leaves me scratching my head. It reminds me of websites that want to sell you something but will not tell you until you have ordered it and clicked pay.
Hey Steve love the video. I had a local Dr. office turn in about 15 different bills to collection. They never sent me a total bill of what I owed. It was for several visits. All of those collection bills hit my credit. I had signed up for Credit Karma and I disputed all of those bills. They were all removed. The best part is All of those bills never got paid!
If you had said "no, I don't have insurance" they would have sent you a bill that you could have paid. The health system is MESSED UP!! How much they charge depends more on who is paying than what they did for you.
I've lived in places in which our uninsured bill was not discounted, but very high because we had to make up for Medicaid underpayments. Much of the population were on Medicaid, and that ended up keeping the system on the edge of bankruptcy.
This beats when I went to a hospital for a simple stress test when I turned 50. I asked how much it costs. "Oh, we 'd have no way of knowing that." How many of these do you do? "Hundreds a year." Yet you can't tell me? "No idea." YET - ten minutes after, they had an (inflated) itemized bill printing out.
I went for a regular check-up (required so I didn't have to pay a surcharge on my insurance. or better - so I got a discount) in September last year, everything except one blood test was covered. I finally got the bill from my provider last week. Yes, April 11 the following year - SIX MONTHS LATER! New York has a law on the books that requires medical facilities to provide a schedule of costs if requested.
My local emergency room is like that. Not only that, but when I asked for an itemized bill they said they didn't do that. When I finally got one I found they charged for many things I didn't get or they didn't do. They have a standard ER bill and only add things to it but never subtract what they don't use. The time spent with the billing department was time-consuming and very frustrating and didn't end until I told her to go get all the things they were billing me for that I didn't get.
Yes, just like when you are treated by the E.R. or admitted and they supply you will a drinking cup...it comes in a package of maybe 15 items that satisfy all sorts of stays or examinations except for the one you are there for and the patient is paying for things never needed nor used except for one item, the drink cup. Very draconian.
Back in the day... 80's? 90's? it was cheaper to pay cash, they'd give you 50% off for the "administration" savings. Then I just filled out the insurance form and get reimbursed! This is back when "master medical" was the standard... Medical debts are not part of your credit report.
Hey Steve the Affordable Care Act does have a section 45 CFR §180.50 that requires all "hospitals" (not sure what the act defines as hospital) to have transparency in common procedures cost. My local hospital has it but they have it well hidden on their website. I have good google-fu abilities so I was able to find it but I bet most people can't. I have noticed they don't follow it unless you call them out then they will adjust your bill to their published prices. So just everyone be aware that those price list went into effect a year or two ago so if your hospital doesn't have it turn them in. My reading doesn't show much teeth to that part of the law but it might make for some interesting discussion with their billing people. It sounds like they might use Athena Net for the practice management as I think they do this kind of thing.
The problem with their "published price list" is that is the maximum they can charge non-insured, non-Medicare/Medicaid patients. Each insurance company has different "allowable charges" for each billing code and each provider. Medicare/Medicaid have completely different allowable charges that even vary within a state. (They can charge different amounts in NYC and Poughkeepsie from the same provider) Another issue is billing procedures. Say you break your finger and go to get it splinted. The provider will bill for "finger splitting, one each," then bill for the doctor or PA who splinted it as they may be working for a different company 9n contract. Then if they took an x-ray, they bill you separately for that. Also, they bill you for the person in Australia who read the x-ray because it was the middle of the night in Poughkeepsie and no one was on-site to read it. It can get even worse for Medicare/Medicaid as some providers have Medicare billing agents who bill for the "finger splitting, one each" and, if successfully paid, will go back and bill for each item used in the splint kit to see if they can squeeze a bit more money out of the system. I have frequently said that "if I ever turn to the dark side, it would be Medicare/Medicaid fraud!"
Yes the negotiated rates with insurances companies will always be lower (45-60%)-yes that low- than cash pay rates- which further places uninsured & underinsured individuals into debt. The system is designed to be complex and exasperating. Also very few states have recently begun placing caps on the finance charges (apr) and fees additionally added.
One thing for sure that is needed in the definitions sections is the meaning of "tranparency" just so that everyone understands what and who that applies to.
Sometimes accounting has to do the books a couple times because the finance department needs to figure out how many additional charges for random services need to be added to your bill in order to remain on target with the money they need to make.
Steve I had Vertigo a few months back and it was one of the worst experiences I ever had. I spent over 24 hours in the hospital so they could make sure I wasn't having a stroke. I could only lay in a bed on my left side the entire time until it passed. If I even slightly moved my head in any other direction I would immediately get sick. I feel for ya dude
Welcome to the US medical system. It’s completely broken, but a lot of people make a pile of money from the system “working” the way it does. So don’t expect it to change soon. The most common problem with medical billing is when their Random Number Generator goes down. You can’t generate a bill without a Random Number …
Whenever I hear about medical health care and insurance, I tell about my motorized wheelchair. On the open market my chair costs $15,000. Because of insurance that same chair costs $60,000. 4x as much because it was a prescribed durable medical device.
Steve!! About 8 years ago I had the same symptoms you described, maybe even worse. After 5 days in the hospital the final verdict was "maybe?" I had Vertigo! If so Vertigo has to be the most painful miserable health issue I have ever had! I couldnt even open my eyes or move without getting nauseas. I had nothing left to throw up! I was lying on the filthy floor in the ER waiting room because they didnt have a room and I could even set up in a chair. Pretty sure folks thought I was a junkie that need a fix! I was in the hospital for 5 days!
Once suffered from ( and had been diagnosed with vertigo). Was with my wife in Walmart when an episode hit. Managed to get outside door and was leaning on their trash bin while I asked my wife to bring the car. Lady comes by and asks if I need help. I explained the situation and that I was waiting for my car. She apparently went inside and told a manager that there was a drunk outside leaning on their trash bin. Two guys came out and tried to forcibly drag me inside out of sight of incoming customers. Luckily my wife arrived with my car.
My wife went through something similar. Called the Dr every couple weeks for several months trying to get a bill so she could pay it and they kept telling her to wait. Then they sent her to collections. When she complained they had the nerve to tell her she should have called! She's had detailed records of each call, who she spoke with etc and let them have it.
Usually, the "negotiated amount" applies even when you (the patient) is paying through your deductible. I.e. if they submit it to insurance for $500 and insurance says "no, you can only charge $200 for that", that applies whether insurance is paying it, or if you are. And if they charge you the higher amount anyway, they can get in trouble with the insurance company.
Don’t pay them anything until you get a letter from your insurance indicating how much they pay, zero perhaps, and you owe 229.00. Then wait for the bill on paper from the mail. If they match send them a check or go online and pay them. If their bill doesn’t match the insurance amount, call the insurance and have them dispute the bill… don’t pay them anything until the bill matches the insurance amount.
Insurance doesn't dispute the bill for you. But you don't have to pay more than the EOB. If they are in network then they are free to bill the insurance any amount they want. Even a billion gazillion dollars, but the insurance will just reduce the amount to the contracted price. Like you said they can bill you a different account than what the insurance allowed. In that case you can dispute it and go to court if they hurt your credit history. I'm not advocating for the system we have now, but it can be profitable for those that have the means.
He's right. They have negotiated rates with the various insurance companies. They bill something crazy. Insurance tells them how much they have to pay and the rest they are contractually obligated to waive. What your probably seeing is a ride to get you to pay the whole amount before it gets submitted to insurance. Then they can pretend it was a mistake.
@@Omego2K it might be, but honestly, if that was what they asked for before having it reduced by the insurance company, it's quite possibly too high. I've rarely seen a medical bill that didn't ask for some amount larger than insurance will pay.
I've worked as a programmer of hospital billing for years, so I can shed a little light on this matter. Typically hospital services are rendered into invoices by a job that runs monthly. HOWEVER in a good system, there's always a way to perform billing on the spot and finalize the bill, once the case is closed (i.e. upon patient's release). This hospital seems to have a broken system in place.
Frustrating, isn't it? I have been dealing with this now for years. Makes my blood pressure go through the roof, and then I have to go through it again after being treated for high blood pressure.
Totally understand your frustration. The reason they don't know, as I understand it, is that there is no, uniform, standard rate for providing medical services. What they charge depends on where you are, what insurance you have, whether the services were in or out of network, and something called the charge master- which can vary from hospital to hospital. And yes, again AFAIK, this is all perfectly legal- but it has drawn the attention of federal and state legislators and some have passed laws against "surprise billing." Two people receiving the exact same treatment, for the exact same problem, performed at the exact same hospital can (and have) received wildly differing bills depending on the factors I listed previoiusly. The only reason I know this stuff at all is because my sister and I had to take care of our parents (now deceased) so I had to learn it in self defense.
I went to urgent care once, it's called A&E where I live. It was the middle of the night and I was 3 sheets to the wind, they opened the eye department for me and proceeded to remove a piece of metal from my eye, Doc wondered if I needed anaesthetic considering how much I'd had to drink but he numbed my eye removed the metal and I was good to go with an eye patch "Thanks Doc" All on the NHS no charge.
@@johnp139 Between £1,600-£2,800 that's about $1,924-$3,472 per year if I was working, but remember I don't need to worry about whether someone or somewhere is in network, whether my insurance covers this procedure, I don't have out of pocket expenses, or co-pays or deductibles, I don't have an insurance excess, I don't need to shop around every year to get the best deal or rely on my employer for healthcare especially if I'm unable to work for an extended period, and it doesn't matter if I'm in work or out of work I still get the same cover and if I'm not working for some reason I'm still covered. If I need an ambulance or air ambulance I'm still covered.
NHS is having issues right now with a Nurses strike this week and months long waits for a max 5 minute visit with a GP. Seems that you can only get decent medical attention at an A&E (ER in the US). GMB (ITV) had a long story about that yesterday.
For what it’s worth I went through that. went to the ED and they diagnosed vertigo. Found out several years later it was actually a stroke. Please Make sure you get an MRI to be safe.
Yes, definitely. My nephew, who we thought was perfectly healthy, had two strokes close together. He's in his early 50,s. He survived, but is permanently disabled now.
Sadly, this is pretty common because the final cost is only determined after your insurance company has negotiated with the care facility. Totally unique, worldwide, if I'm not mistaken. Luckily I always know exactly how much to pay each time for my medical care; zero. Which is nice, not gonna lie. And I pay it gladly, with a smile on my face!
Yes. If a client uses insurance, it is hard for me to tell you what your cost will be for that first visit. Now, I can tell you what my self pay rate is, but if you pay that then I will own you money afterwards. I'd rather not collect and then give back. So I say, I am waiting on insurance. But I would never send something straight to collections.
The wonders of private health care. I had similar issues with dizziness in the morning, so I decided to see a doctor the following day. At about 5AM I woke up with a buzzing in my ear, and I drove to Accident and Emergency in a panic, I felt fine apart from the buzzing. After a few attempts, the doctor removed the insect from my ear, I phoned work to explain the situation and that I might be late, and carried on with my day. There was no charge for this treatment. The higher tax I pay is much less than the cost of private insurance, especially when they use debt collection agencies.
When my second child was born I asked about payment and was told that someone would talk to me before we left the hospital. When we were leaving I asked again and was told I would be billed. Called multiple times over the first few months and was told I would get a bill. Six years later I was sued by the hospital for not paying them.
Happy Friday, Steve! I have bouts of vertigo, usually situational. For instance, I can't work under my car - I like to change their oil, etc, but going under the car, flat on my back, gives me vertigo to the point of nausea. I need a garage with a lift.
I don't know if this will be of help, but if you're still suffering from vertigo still, have you looked up an exercise called "The Epley Maneuver"? It's basically a means to "reset" the otoliths in your ear canals. Those are the little "stones" in your ear that help you with balance.
Hey Steve. I have worked in medical care for 30 years and one thing I do know is that ICD-10 codes needs to be determined for accurate billing for medical services. I worked for the last several years in LTC coding for Medicare and Medicaid/other insurances billing. This involves reading the “doctor” notes and determining any diagnoses/procedures that were provided. So it takes at least as long as getting those notes to determine the correct coding. Over the years, this coding has gotten more complicated and there are persons certified for this service to the providers. I suspect the coder may be a third party(some work at home) or at least is not in the same building. Glad your feeling better! We love your sow and watch all the time Gail and Greg in Missoula Montana 😸
I'm a retired Marine, retired in 97, and have "free medical care for life" given my twenty plus years of service. I've dealt with this same idea for almost thirty years, even though I've only had to actually pay when I've gotten service that isn't covered by my "tricare for life" medical coverage that has morphed into "medicare" because government wants everyone to be under their umbrella so they have complete control of our health "services". I've watched this "arrive" over the past thirty years since retirement. I often got told, "we don't know" even when there isn't supposed to be any possible charge. I've had multiple sclerosis since my "classified experimental anthrax vaccine" going to the gulf in 89, and been in various shot and infusion therapies for thirty plus years. "Multiple sclerosis" is a description of the neurological injuries, not a description of the cause of the damage, still "unknown".
Hate to tell you but they know exactly what caused your issue and will not tell you. Look up squalene. It is a vaccine enhancing drug only approved for animals but they used it in humans for that experiment. You likely had a very high fever for many days.
I was in a car accident that gave me what ended up being severe chronic whiplash. I have these muscle groups firing underneath my right scapula that cause constant tightness in my shoulder area and neck area causing constant pain. I was referred to a doctor that could measure these muscle firings and possibly prescribe a cure. Contacted the hospital to make sure that these tests would be covered under insurance. I contacted them twice with the same question. They said it was no problem it would be covered by insurance. The first time I contacted them I asked if they were sure. They said it was okay to go. I had my reservations. So I contacted them a second time to make sure. They said that it was all good to go. I went in to have my first reading done on my muscle grouping... I informed the person putting the electrodes on that they were in the wrong area. I tried to guide them to the right area but they insisted that they were correct in their placement. The test result came back with normal muscle action. I insisted on a second test with a different person and they placed the electrodes in the correct place revealing that the muscle grouping was indeed firing abnormally at a high rate. Causing my spasms and neck pain. When they filed with insurance, my insurance denied it because it was not covered. Mother fucker I asked you to check if it was covered.. and you didn't do it. I ended up paying $1,100 out of pocket for someone to tell me something I already knew. And they had no inkling of what to do about the pain. 15 years later I am still living with the pain. Constant headaches. There are times in which the muscles in my scapula are so tight that even heat from a heating pad and a "therocane" device massaging the muscles doesn't help. I just end up taking fistfuls of muscle relaxant and a washing them down with a bit of alcoholic drink just so I can sleep at night without being woken up with the pain. There was a lawsuit. There was payment. But it will never replace The lifelong pain that I will endure until my death. I just want the pain to be over. Preferably sooner than later.
Ugh. I'm a physician and work in an urgent care. There is so much wrong with our system. We have plenty of people with high deductible plans who choose to play cash. And I can tell you exactly how much it will cost if you're paying cash. Our system is burning to the ground, but not fast enough.
Something it seems that's being ignored here is that stuff which happens after the fact (such as lab tests) will often have unknown total costs until they're done, well after your visit. So, the lack of proper billing by them is a giant screwup (which I've gone through before myself), but the lack of clarity on cost does make sense due to the timeline and external services which may be involved.
Welcome to the world of medical billing 😂 It's an entity unto itself! Your next course of action should be to request an itemized statement. Since they've left you no option but to participate in this billing nonsense, put it back in their court to ensure accuracy. The other day I went to pay my power bill as usual using their automated phone payment system. It didn't recognize my prompts so I transferred to an operator. Nice lady but she was unable to take payments. Seems management decided it was safer to remove that option. Technology out of control, for convenience of course.
My Mom had brain hemorrhage in the 80's , she was in a coma 9 months and in the hospital 3 years never walking again/ She was charged 50 bucks an Aspirin and 30 bucks a day for slippers. Since she fell out of her bed ,in a coma, she lost broken leg to gangrene in the first month. Fear not this bill came 6 years after her brain hemorrhage and 4 weeks after she died. St Luke in Allentown/Bethlehem PA you suck as............. were are those 2,412,630 slippers for one legged comatose women? No one know according to court records !
Wow that's crazy. That is such.a good question. My mom would check her blood I think with a machine at home then call someone ? And tell them # they call Dr and tell him the # then the Dr would call her or something like that and tell her the same # .She would drive her nuts. Also friend of hers had some piece of medical equipment very cheap thing a few bucks but they where renting it to her every month. Think you could have bought one very easy if they let you for what it cost 1 month. My mom was a nurse when I was a teen. Baby's. Older she got the more she would not understand the billing or maybe she did just would complain sometimes but not very much .sorry to hear what your poor mom went through. Stay safe.
Two things, one, although it’s not the burden of your rant, look up Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. It’s one of those, “it sucks to get old” things. My wife has it, and had a doctor perform the Epley Maneuever on her for it. She’s learned to do it for herself, and it sorts it out, every time. Number two, re: the insane ‘we don’t know how much you owe us” thing. It’s the insurance billing, of course. Who do you think funded all the backlash against Obamacare and any talk of socialized medicine? It’s the insurance companies, who have created such an arcane system that no one can follow what they are doing, and just how much money they are bilking us all out of. They do their best to scare the simple minded away from actually fixing the problem, which would mean taking control of the medical system away from them, and making the care more comprehensible to both the patients and the medical community itself.
Where I live there are NO Doctors in ANY Urgent Care clinics.. however they DO have a list of services and cost. But, there are"add on" that they don't tell you.
My wife had several vertigo issues. Finally found the right doc. It was a sodium issue. As long as she stay at about 1500mg or less(prefer less) she has no issues. 2-3 days of 2000 or more she gets vertigo.
Steve, Imagine being told by your health insurance company (high deductable plan) that its covered, and 2 months later getting a collection call telling you to pay 10k!!!! NEVER receiving a statement prior with the balance due.
Hate to say it, but that's fairly common. Billing in the medical industry is not standardized. The cost of services rendered is not the same for everyone. If you are with Insurance company A on plan 23, you pay a different amount for the same services than someone with insurance company C on plan 51. If you're uninsured, then you get the base rate, which is usually inflated in order to give insurance companies "discounts". However, that's not always the case. Sometimes, uninsured people pay less than insured people due to the negotiated prices specific to various insurance plans. Then, throw in variables: just because your insurance claims to cover it doesn't mean it'll be approved. They don't know in advance what the insurance company will approve and what it won't. For that matter, it could get denied due to a paperwork error, but it costs the medical facility too much to fight it, so they instead bill you the extra and let you battle it out with your insurance company.
Unfortunately, on occasion, I’ve had vertigo and has the same symptoms you referred to. Felt like the whole room was spinning at times. Nausea, throwing up, etc. In my case, I just went downstairs to bed, lay down and just close my eyes as best as I could, and just laid still. It put me out of commission for about 2 to 3 days before I completely recovered. Admittedly, I probably should’ve went to the doctor/hospital but I didn’t. It’s been over a year now since I’ve had that attack.
Thats the way billing works. They have to see your insurance, and what the contracted rates are. So Insurance A contracted rate is $20, while Insurance B rate is $30. Then if you pay cash you have a special rate, over the posted rate. It's all a big game
There is actually a simple maneuver (epley maneuver) that can treat vertigo by moving around the liquids and possibly small objects in the ear from pressing against the sensitive elements that help with proprioception (the sense of movement and position). An ER Doctor can usually easily preform the maneuver. It does depend on what type of vertigo you have though.
I believe they wait to see what kind of limit to the charges are imposed by the insurer. Even if the deductable is not met many companies have worked out charge limits. These are leveraged by the size of the company. Between the insurers, state an federal regulations, doctors are having hard time not drowning paper work. Everyone knows the medical field needs to be regulated , but the added amount of paper work and dumb regulations make it difficult. As to no doctor they are probably only using a nurse practitioner or physicians assistant to make more money. Depends on Michigan's laws on whether an MD needs to be present.
I had a $58 medical bill haunt me for 4yrs that no one would accept payment on or knew what it was for but kept sending me to the next billing company then another etc.....our medical/insurance system is just completely stupid
Ok as a mechanic I'm now the car doctor I cannot tell you how much for the brakes and shocks, but you'll be billed later. Thank you for your business. Sincerely medical mechanic.
Doesn't your insurance company send you a statement saying they didn't pay since you didn't meet the deductible? Also if you pay by yourself without insurance it is always much higher, let the insurance reject and you pay the lower insurance rate.
My wife had a similar situation. Someone put something on her credit report that they didn't have the right to do. She hired an attorney on contingency who successfully sued them. I think she got 10k? I'll ask her later, but moral of the story, if they put it on your credit report, you can sue.
I was told it was based on the negotiated price with the different insurance companies. Even though I have a very high deductible, it depended upon my insurance company with the cost was for the service.
It's not that they "can't" tell you the cost of the services, it's that they don't "want" to tell you the cost of the services until months later, when you have no recourse to dispute it, thus why you were overcharged.
Healthcare in the U.S. is not ordered off a preset menu. When you are seen it then takes time for the doctor or physicians assistant to write up the visit and then your chart goes to billing. The people who work there have NO IDEA what ANYTHING there costs
I have found that it is better to go to a hospital er than to go to an urgent care. Had the same thing happen to me in Indiana only I got billed for a CT scan from the urgent care and they don’t even have a CT machine.
Frontier screwed me years ago. I had their bundle deal with home phone and dish network. The home phone worked 10% of the time (we are in the country). Constantly would pick up the handset with no dial tone or anything. Useless. Called frontier and told them we no longer want the home phone and would continue to use dish network. They said no problem and they said I would receive one final bill from them and from then all future bills would come from dish network. Frontier bill came and I paid it. Dish network bills came and I paid them. Then 6 months later I get a notice from frontier that I had an outstanding bill and if not paid I would be sent to collections. I called them and they explained there was a small additional bill that came after the final billing cycle. So I paid it over the phone and they said no collection action would be taken. A month later a deliquent note was placed on my credit history from frontier. Called their management and they would do nothing about it. Contacted the credit reporting agencies and they made a case with frontier but they would not change it. Its off my credit at this point but I will never do business with frontier again.
I had a similar experience with a provider. They were the insurance and the provider. They took a copay and said nothing of a deductible. I got a bill a month later and didn't understand. They said there wasn't any way to know. They setup a 90 day payment plan and I forgot about it having never received a statement or instructions to pay. 45 days later I got a collections call. I told them that happened and informed them I never received the payment info. They apologized and I called the provider directly. Then called the collector and provided them the confirmation number. They made note of it. Later I got a call from them informing me they had seen a pattern of this behavior from the health provider and were no longer going to be collecting on their behalf. 😂
Hi Steve. You're not alone in your plight. Many small hospitals and clinics do not do the billing themselves.They usually have a billing agency do that for them. I was surprised that this occurred within a matter of a few weeks. Most of the time it takes months if not longer just for you to receive the bill, let alone be sent to a billing agency. A couple of times, my wife who is a nurse at a rural hospital, has had a couple of bills sent to collections, one, because they took their time trying to figure out why she was charges the full amount and two, the never sent anything to the insurance company. We have had on several occasions not been billed for over a year. Go figure.
Yes There is someone in back room making up numbers The numbers they make up are "codes" Prior to our marriage , my wife used to be one of those people, "coding" medical services So , we had some inside information Twenty years ago , we had some very expensive services When we got some bills not covered by our insurance , we would call the hospital billing people , and coach them on how to "Code" our bills so insurance would pay They did not like it , but we basically told them , "code the procedure this way , or you won't get paid" Only once did I have to escalate to explain it to a supervisor
Yep! I have had that happen to me more than once. One time I had insurance but a very high deductible - I wanted some blood work done but I wanted to know the cost first. I was told they had no way to tell me the cost. I was told to have the lab work done then it would be sent to my insurance and after that I would be billed. More or less the same as you went through. In my case I wanted the lab work done for my own curiosity. In the end, I did NOT have the labs done since I had no idea what the cost might be. I am currently living in the Philippines. I have had lab work done here. It is VERY reasonable and you are given the price before the lab work is done. Philippines vs USA.... Crazy, ha.
I wish an US health insurance company would go "we cover it if it's covered under healthcare in Ontario, Canada, and at Xpercent the canadian cost if not" It would cut thru all the bullshit that iinsurance companies change on the fly after contracts are signed which happens a LOT about the price of the various treatments.....
Now that is a Micky Mouse urgent care. I've been to Urgent Care a few times and all of them have taken my money at the location and they know what the bill will be.
Almost as bizarre as the $120 bill I got for speaking with a doc for almost exactly 5 minutes over the phone. He ordered some tests while chatting and send me the lab order, all during that time.
