4 ms·

Hyper efficient? MRI coats me 1500 deductible. Plus whatever they bill insurance. Cash price $750. Is really screwed up.

eatonphil 4y ago
That word is being used in a different way in this case. Maybe it's an economic definition of "efficient" but I'm not sure. It means they are spending bare minimum on staff/expenses to achieve whatever goals they have. Like "lean".
postalrat 4y ago
Efficient money making machines.
aantix 4y ago
Meant that they're only employing the exact number of doctors/nurses to meet their current capacity. It's great for profitability, the tradeoff being when there's increased demand, it's inflexible.
FullyFunctional 4y ago
Hyper efficiency isn't about you, it's for the corporation and, to no small degree, the insurance company. I'd have to imagine that the amortized cost (millions?) for the MRI machine, it's operation and storage, and the trained personnel isn't free, but obviously much less than you and your insurance pay.
floren 4y ago
The sickest part is the "billed to insurance" value. You get a medical bill that looks like this: Cost: $1000 Paid by patient: $200 Billed to insurance: $800 Paid by insurance: $150 Remaining to be paid: $0 I get statements that look like this all the time, where the provider "bills" the insurance for $N, but the insurance pays a fraction of it, and apparently that's "good enough". But when they tell me "that'll be $200 today, please, we take Visa and Discover", I don't have the option to say "actually I'm gonna pay $50 and that's good enough"
- 8note 4y ago
  Have you tried?
  - floren 4y ago
    I have heard that for a birth (since you have some advance notice), you can go in to the hospital, sit down, and say "I will be having a baby here, and I will pay in cash, in full. Let's hammer out some costs" and maybe actually negotiate something acceptable.

4 ms·

Hyper efficient? MRI coats me 1500 deductible. Plus whatever they bill insurance. Cash price $750. Is really screwed up.

by treeman79 4y ago

eatonphil 4y ago
That word is being used in a different way in this case. Maybe it's an economic definition of "efficient" but I'm not sure. It means they are spending bare minimum on staff/expenses to achieve whatever goals they have. Like "lean".
postalrat 4y ago
Efficient money making machines.
aantix 4y ago
Meant that they're only employing the exact number of doctors/nurses to meet their current capacity. It's great for profitability, the tradeoff being when there's increased demand, it's inflexible.
FullyFunctional 4y ago
Hyper efficiency isn't about you, it's for the corporation and, to no small degree, the insurance company. I'd have to imagine that the amortized cost (millions?) for the MRI machine, it's operation and storage, and the trained personnel isn't free, but obviously much less than you and your insurance pay.
floren 4y ago
The sickest part is the "billed to insurance" value. You get a medical bill that looks like this: Cost: $1000 Paid by patient: $200 Billed to insurance: $800 Paid by insurance: $150 Remaining to be paid: $0 I get statements that look like this all the time, where the provider "bills" the insurance for $N, but the insurance pays a fraction of it, and apparently that's "good enough". But when they tell me "that'll be $200 today, please, we take Visa and Discover", I don't have the option to say "actually I'm gonna pay $50 and that's good enough"
- 8note 4y ago
  Have you tried?
  - floren 4y ago
    I have heard that for a birth (since you have some advance notice), you can go in to the hospital, sit down, and say "I will be having a baby here, and I will pay in cash, in full. Let's hammer out some costs" and maybe actually negotiate something acceptable.