Medical billing is out of control

by **The Pantry** 2018-06-26, 22:10

Have had a few stays in the hospital the last year and a half after never spending a night in a hospital since birth.

Have insurance and the bills from the hospital I consider correct. What I don't understand are the random bills I've been getting from places that have no apparent connection to the hospital I stayed at.

Had the same procedure done on the first and second stays. Procedure required anesthetizing. No separate bill the first time but got one the second time it was done from some office in fucking Grand Rapids.

I'm now getting another random bill from some place in Chicago for an undefined service from a doctor I never heard of.

Why am I getting bills from offices hundreds of miles from the hospital? This shit needs to get cleaned up.

by **Death Roe** 2018-06-26, 22:13

I don't know.

by **Nordic** 2018-06-26, 22:19

I hear Canada has good health care

by **y2kMgrad** 2018-06-26, 22:29

Did you get any bills from a prince in Nigeria?

by **y2kMgrad** 2018-06-26, 22:38

Btw when my wife had a C section for our second daughter the bill ended up being like $40k. Absurd.

by **Tim Wakefield** 2018-06-26, 23:14

GR did nothing wrong

by **Nordic** 2018-06-26, 23:33

y2kMgrad wrote:Btw when my wife had a C section for our second daughter the bill ended up being like $40k. Absurd.

yeah...I mean that should be like a couple hundred bucks

by Bill Cain 2018-06-26, 23:34

As a Christian Scientist, I would usually say let God decide your fate

by **Other Teams Pursuing That** 2018-06-27, 01:15

Healthcare in this country is a fucking sham. Welcome to earth.

by SawGreen 2018-06-27, 01:24

Tru this place next time... you can get the cost before hand.
https://surgerycenterok.com

by **pulling69** 2018-06-27, 02:07

I got some crazy stupid stories about this mess..

by **Jake from State Farm** 2018-06-27, 06:16

The Pantry wrote:Have had a few stays in the hospital the last year and a half after never spending a night in a hospital since birth.

Have insurance and the bills from the hospital I consider correct. What I don't understand are the random bills I've been getting from places that have no apparent connection to the hospital I stayed at.

Had the same procedure done on the first and second stays. Procedure required anesthetizing. No separate bill the first time but got one the second time it was done from some office in fucking Grand Rapids.

I'm now getting another random bill from some place in Chicago for an undefined service from a doctor I never heard of.

Why am I getting bills from offices hundreds of miles from the hospital? This shit needs to get cleaned up.

Probably some doctor walked by your room, stuck his head inside the doorway and asked how you were doing. That's worth a couple hundred in billable time to him/her.

by **Jake from State Farm** 2018-06-27, 06:19

I had some procedure done and every doctor except for one was in network. Insurance wouldn't pay his part of the bill. I had to write insurance company a letter and ask them wtf I was supposed to do, ask every doctor that wanders by my room in the hope of getting a payout whether or not they were part of my insurance network?

by **Floyd Robertson** 2018-06-27, 07:28

Jake from State Farm wrote:
The Pantry wrote:Have had a few stays in the hospital the last year and a half after never spending a night in a hospital since birth.

Have insurance and the bills from the hospital I consider correct. What I don't understand are the random bills I've been getting from places that have no apparent connection to the hospital I stayed at.

Had the same procedure done on the first and second stays. Procedure required anesthetizing. No separate bill the first time but got one the second time it was done from some office in fucking Grand Rapids.

I'm now getting another random bill from some place in Chicago for an undefined service from a doctor I never heard of.

Why am I getting bills from offices hundreds of miles from the hospital? This shit needs to get cleaned up.

Probably some doctor walked by your room, stuck his head inside the doorway and asked how you were doing. That's worth a couple hundred in billable time to him/her.

I can guarantee that's what happened. Hospitals have doctors make rounds but they aren't on the hospital payroll. The doctor bills your insurance directly for the time. This is the biggest sham in the entire industry. Provider walks in, reads your chart for two minutes, asks three questions and gets paid $63.35 for six minutes on a 99232 for subsequent hospital care (forget what they charged, it's immaterial).

Hospitals also routinely contract out their radiological staff. Nothing really askew there, except that it gets real confusing for the patient/family.

by **Watch Out Pylon!** 2018-06-27, 07:58

It's almost as if our current health care system is all fucked up. Hmm...

by **MiamiSpartan** 2018-06-27, 08:55

Similar happened recently when we too my daughter to the ER (nothing serious, but it was a weekend). We got a separate bill for the doctor that saw her and were told he doesn't take her insurance. We told them to fuck off. We are at the ER. We go through all of the insurance stuff. The hospital knows what insurance we have right from the start, so don't fucking assign a doctor that doesn't take it. That's on the hospital as far as we are concerned. The hospital eventually agreed and took care of it on their end.

by TheReal_LWS 2018-06-27, 09:14

Auto repair is a human right.

by **steveschneider** 2018-06-27, 11:05

I had a stay in the hospital and I got so many bills and I couldn't even tell what I was getting billed for. You know those ecg things they have at meijers by the pharmacy department? You get one of those readings in a hospital and it will show up on your bill for like 500.00. It's fucking crazy. I never paid any of them either, figured fuck it I can't let this shit bankrupt me. Never showed up on my credit report and I never heard anything from a creditor.

Last physical the doctor tried to charge me $90.00 for some kind of test. They code shit wrong so it shows up on a bill hoping you fuck up and pay it. I had to call my insurance company and they took care of it. I agree with OTPT our medical system sucks.

by **Floyd Robertson** 2018-06-27, 11:18

If you guys think it's out of control for consumers (and it is), you should try being a doctor. With all the crap they have to put up with in terms of mandated use of EHR systems, quality reporting to CMS, insurer-specific quality reporting, credentialing with insurers it's f'in joke. The glamor days of being a doctor are long gone. They're getting nickle-and-dime squeezed to death and it's sad. It's like being wrapped inside a boa constrictor now.

We need to get back to the good old simpler days where you walked into the doctor's office with a chicken for payment and the doc puffing away on a Pall Mall.

by **steveschneider** 2018-06-27, 11:25

Floyd Robertson wrote:If you guys think it's out of control for consumers (and it is), you should try being a doctor. With all the crap they have to put up with in terms of mandated use of EHR systems, quality reporting to CMS, insurer-specific quality reporting, credentialing with insurers it's f'in joke. The glamor days of being a doctor are long gone. They're getting nickle-and-dime squeezed to death and it's sad. It's like being wrapped inside a boa constrictor now.

We need to get back to the good old simpler days where you walked into the doctor's office with a chicken for payment and the doc puffing away on a Pall Mall.

I never considered that it probably sucks for them. All I know is there's more charges than ever that pop up on my bills now, it's always a headache and it didn't used to be that way.

by **goodbar** 2018-06-27, 13:00

pulling69 wrote:I got some crazy stupid stories about this mess..

"Crazy Stupid?"
Medical billing is out of control Crazy10

"Stupid?"......."Crazy?"
Medical billing is out of control Insane11

by **Dendrobates** 2018-06-27, 18:44

The Pantry wrote:Have had a few stays in the hospital the last year and a half after never spending a night in a hospital since birth.

Have insurance and the bills from the hospital I consider correct. What I don't understand are the random bills I've been getting from places that have no apparent connection to the hospital I stayed at.

Had the same procedure done on the first and second stays. Procedure required anesthetizing. No separate bill the first time but got one the second time it was done from some office in fucking Grand Rapids.

I'm now getting another random bill from some place in Chicago for an undefined service from a doctor I never heard of.

Why am I getting bills from offices hundreds of miles from the hospital? This shit needs to get cleaned up.

Costs are stupid ridiculous for sure.
I’m wondering if it’s from a pathologist. Did you have a biopsy or some test sent out?

by **The Pantry** 2018-06-27, 19:47

Dendrobates wrote:
The Pantry wrote:Have had a few stays in the hospital the last year and a half after never spending a night in a hospital since birth.

Have insurance and the bills from the hospital I consider correct. What I don't understand are the random bills I've been getting from places that have no apparent connection to the hospital I stayed at.

Had the same procedure done on the first and second stays. Procedure required anesthetizing. No separate bill the first time but got one the second time it was done from some office in fucking Grand Rapids.

I'm now getting another random bill from some place in Chicago for an undefined service from a doctor I never heard of.

Why am I getting bills from offices hundreds of miles from the hospital? This shit needs to get cleaned up.

Costs are stupid ridiculous for sure.
I’m wondering if it’s from a pathologist. Did you have a biopsy or some test sent out?

Just blood work which, TMK, was all done at Beaumont.

Forget how long I was in the original ER room...maybe 3 hours. They rolled me out to wait in a hallway for maybe another 2-3 hours before getting a room for my 3 day stay. The ER doc stopped by. Think the bill was from some woman doc that stopped by once and asked me the same questions I'd already answered about 6 times since checking in. As I recall her accent was Eastern bloc, maybe Romanian judging from the name on the bill. Never saw her again.

Her bill from Chicago is only $26 but pisses me off. Once admitted to a hospital, all billing should be from the hospital. Not from random physicians the hospital lets roam around. Health insurance companies are not helping. It should be their policy all billing should be from the hospital once a patient is admitted.

Health insurance/medical billing has become even more complicated than the tax code, which has been getting more fucked up every year for decades.

by **Dendrobates** 2018-06-27, 19:55

The Pantry wrote:
Dendrobates wrote:

Costs are stupid ridiculous for sure.
I’m wondering if it’s from a pathologist. Did you have a biopsy or some test sent out?
Just blood work which, TMK, was all done at Beaumont.

Forget how long I was in the original ER room...maybe 3 hours. They rolled me out to wait in a hallway for maybe another 2-3 hours before getting a room for my 3 day stay. The ER doc stopped by. Think the bill was from some woman doc that stopped by once and asked me the same questions I'd already answered about 6 times since checking in. As I recall her accent was Eastern bloc, maybe Romanian judging from the name on the bill. Never saw her again.

Her bill from Chicago is only $26 but pisses me off. Once admitted to a hospital, all billing should be from the hospital. Not from random physicians the hospital lets roam around. Health insurance companies are not helping. It should be their policy all billing should be from the hospital once a patient is admitted.

Health insurance/medical billing has become even more complicated than the tax code, which has been getting more fucked up every year for decades.

It could be a doc that works at multiple hospitals and maybe does telemedicine too. It’s crazy I know.

One of the docs I worked with recently lives in Florida. But she’s a Cleveland clinic physician. She does telemedicine a few days a week, and then flies to Cleveland once a month to work 2 or 3 days at the hospital. I didn’t realize that shit was done, but it’s happenong more often.

by **Heat Miser** 2018-06-29, 18:03

Your New Hospital Nightmare: the 'Trauma Fee'

by **The Pantry** 2018-06-29, 18:20

Heat Miser wrote:Your New Hospital Nightmare: the 'Trauma Fee'

That's just fucking crazy.

I'm not a fan of regulation but the medical complex is in dire need of it. They've been sucking the life out of the economy for too long.

by **DWags** 2018-06-29, 18:28

So when my first was born 21 years ago they needed to have her in icu for 24 1/2 hours. Back then it was about 10K a day. My insurance took care of it, but as I looked at the bill it said 48 hours in icu. We were home by then and it was about a month later. The bill was like 20K (can’t remember the actual amount) for 48 hours. I thought I’d call BC/BS Mesa just to let them know the hospital added 23 1/2 hours to the bill. I mean, I didn’t care, it was paid for, but it was a principal thing. They did not give two shits. Said that SOP and they know it happens. I actually think the hospital waited a half hour to release her to bill another 24.

by SawGreen 2018-06-29, 19:09

We've called the insurance over what we thought was excessive billing as well. I have the distinct impression that they have no concept or mechanism to field or log these kinds of complaints.

by SawGreen 2018-06-29, 19:12

Some of the "no seem" bills come from doctors (even in other countries) who can read x-rays, MRI and the like. I guess there are partnerships formed to reach qualified people at off-hours.

by **The Pantry** 2018-06-29, 19:28

SawGreen wrote:We've called the insurance over what we thought was excessive billing as well. I have the distinct impression that they have no concept or mechanism to field or log these kinds of complaints.

They don't need one. They have carte blanche to charge whatever they want and scoff at anyone challenging them.

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