Let me share with you another reason to love Private Insurance Companies

[burythehatchet]

and health care providers.

Lets say I own a hospital in a town where Kaiser Perm is the largest HMO, and they have the largest patient population.

My hospital specializes in hearts. For a specific type of angioplasty lets say it costs my hospital $20,000. Or more likely, $20,000 is what my hospital tells you it needs.

Kaiser comes to me and because they have the biggest patient base in town, I have to deal with them. They tell me that they will pay me $14,000 per angio. I have to take the deal. How do I make up the $6,000? I shift it to the uninsured person who cannot negotiate.

So there you have it. If yo uare uninsured, you will always pay more because providers will shift costs to you. Isn't that special?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Insurance companies suck.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Nite Owl]

3. So they need the

uninsured in order to pay the slack that they don't get from the insurance companies? A reason for not doing anything constructive for those who are not insured isn't it? And why is wasn't included in the provisions for that dreadful bankrupcy bill? Like pieces of puzzle all fitting together.

[Lars39]

4. These hospitals are probably getting tax cuts worth more than $6000.

I'd say they're making money off of both the insured and uninsured.
Charging the uninsured more is just an excuse to rake in more profit.

[burythehatchet]

5. you're exactly right.

The discount that they give to Kaiser in this example, is, to the best of my knowledge, tax deductible.

[Lars39]

6. Sometimes the hospital will "write off" a debt if it isn't too large,

because the cost of going after it would exceed the debt.
That's a loss the IRS would recognize, too.

[NV Whino]

8. Weeeellll,

My local hospital sicced a collection agency on me for $10 bucks. It happened to be $10 I didn't owe. (Ten percent discount if bill paid before certain date. I paid before the date and took the 10% discount.) These guys billed me for 8 months. I sent letters and copies of document, they kept biling. Finally a collection agency called me... for ten bucks!

End of story: a friend of one of my clients was on the Board of Directors at the time. I had been in e-mail contact with him regarding stuff for my client. I resorted to: pulling in markers; pulling rank; crying on this guy's shoulder. It worked. The hospital stopped billing me and the collection agency never called again.

[Warpy]

7. You get the gold star

Costs are being shifted away from insurance companies and onto the backs of those least able to pay. The hospital WILL get paid, too. Liens are placed against homes and cars; savings and paychecks are garnished. If you get sick without insurance, you will literally lose everything if you want to live. Or you can "choose" to die.

Forget about bankruptcy. They destroyed that protection. It's your money or your life. Stick 'em up, sucker. We've got insurance company executives to support.

[Sgent]

9. Heck...

The doctor's office I worked at didn't even turn a debt over till it hit $50... and our doctor's usually wouldn't turn anyone over period (too softhearted).

FYI... in the healthcare field revenue is recongized on a net basis -- meaning what you actually expect to collect. There would be no tax writeoff because the $6000 is never put down as income.

Ya'll must be in CA... but here the hospitals usually own their own insurance companies, so no one insurer has more than maybe 20% of the risk. Our local hospital just told Blue Cross to shove off -- and its the only major hospital within 100 miles.

[burythehatchet]

10. WOW. $50?

Tough to run up those kinda numbers. We must not be playing the system properly.
:sarcasm:

[Sgent]

12. I can't

tell you how many 10's of thousands were written off because of a bad family or job situation. Probably the reason the doctor's I worked for made less than average for the area (that and they just didn't charge a lot of the time).

But on a serious note, turning over a $10 bill is nuts. Although the hospital obviously has the clout to force it, most collection agencies won't even take that small a debt.

[WildClarySage]

11. My cousin lost her foot after a car accident because she didn't have

insurance and the hospital was not required to do EVERYTHING they could for her, lifesaving care only. There were treatments for preventing the necrosis of ankle tissue that ultimately led to her foot being amputated, treatments that are expensive and weren't offered. Indigent care in this country is a horrible joke. The irony is that my aunt still votes republican even after all her daughter has suffered.

[Sugarbleus]

13. Interesting post.... I wondered why

I had to pay more and visit more often WHEN I PAID CASH to see the doc.

There's only one instance, one doc that gave me a 10% discount if I paid cash...it was my dentist.

Veddy intalesting =o/

[Sgent]

14. Your negotiating with the wrong ppl

Talk to the office manager, and offer to pay Medicare rates. If they don't accept that, try to get Medicare+10% or so.

Its really weird, in our area we get about 200-250% of Medicare rates, but in CA they usually get 80-90%. For a cash pay patient, we would accept Medicare rates, as well as most of the specialists in the area, if we knew we were going to be paid (patient gave us credit card or check that day).