I'm posting images of my current charges so far. It is really quite staggering that I ran up a $30k bill in under 1 week. Under 1 week and I wasn't even hospitalized through any of this! Damn! Jeff, if I don't hear some color commentary from you, I'm going to be truly pissed.
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They didn't offer a movie during the PET scan? Dude, next time see if they can bump you up to first class....also...just asking....I assume that Laurie Beth Jones-Jackson is married with the double last name. Would Elisabeth Donlevy Willers or Lisa A. Mendes be married?
ReplyDeleteWell first, I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. I was dangerously close to resorting to actually picking up a phone when you didn't update for a few days.
ReplyDeleteMuch as I'd love to pontificate endlessly over the sad state of the US health care system, I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that it's hopelessly broken. Sadly, many citizens of nations with nationalized health care would say the same about theirs (I have first-hand experience with this). That's not to say, however, that one system isn't more broken than another, and it's particularly hard now to suffer arguments that we can't afford a health care system when the treasury is raining money down on banks who are flagrantly squandering it.
To paint with the broadest brush possible, IMO, healthcare worldwide is a sad commentary on the human condition: over ripe with incompetence and greed, with entirely too little actual care for each other.
Here's an anecdote about Vanderbilt. When my wife and I had our first child, she had health insurance through her job at Vandy. The sum total out of our pockets for all the health care provided starting at prenatal visits and ending with the post delivery wellness visits: $30.00
When we got pregnant with our second, we no longer had that policy. We had only a high-deductible plan with no rider for pregnancy. I combed through the statements of our first delivery at Vandy and summed the insurance billing. It came to something like $7,000. I then called Vanderbilt, explained that we would be paying cash and asked if they had a special rate for such people. Their answer: $13,000. When I explained that two years prior they billed only $7,000 for the same services, the lady said, "That's because of a special contract rate with the insurer. Cash payers do not get that rate."
So, not only did I now have to pay cash, but I had to pay nearly double what the insurance company's contracted rates were. For the record, I've since determined that experience was atypical in that Vandy is the only institution so far to resolutely demand such ridiculousness. Deduce what you will from that, but clearly there's a problem somewhere.
End of story, because we live in a capitalist society, and I was fortunate enough to be able to afford care, we ended up at Baptist for about half that.
With that, all I can say is I'm glad you can afford it and sorry that others cannot. It's actually you're own fault, you know. If you weren't so driven you could be on TennCare getting this treatment on my dime.
Glad you asked, huh? :-)
Jeff
Bill,
ReplyDeleteIt only get worse!! I don't want to get into what my medical expenses have been. The good thing is that insurance covers at some of what you have been charged. But, there are tons of other expenses that are not considered insurance reimbursable, nor are they deductible as legitimate health expenses on your taxes.
Just some more good news for you!
Cheers,
John
Yes, our lovely healthsick system. It is typical for insurance companies to negotiate lower rates with 'suppliers'. What does that mean? People without insurance, those usually who are without jobs and unable to pay, get screwed. Does that make any sense to anyone?
ReplyDeleteIt gets worse...try developing a drug or product and figure out at what rate it will be reimbursed, or if it will be. Insurance companies have a huge impact on the decision to take a drug to market. Sad but true.