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It's still better than billing to the hospital and the hospital billing to the patient, piling up taxes and comissions. The patient is also getting more cost tr

by petre 3y ago

It's still better than billing to the hospital and the hospital billing to the patient, piling up taxes and comissions. The patient is also getting more cost transparency instead of a bundled bill one can never make sense of.

ddoolin 3y ago
I don't agree with the last point and I think this thread is evidence of that. We cannot make sense of the myriad of bills we get from all the different providers, particularly since many or all of them are also being dealt with by our insurance and may have already been negotiated by the time we get the bills in the mail. To that point, I went to the ER a few months ago and I've probably received ten or so mailings for unpaid bills, only one of which I actually ended up owing, but my insurance didn't make the claims visible until they were settled which was months after the fact. To make matters worse, I can still log in and pay bills which were settled by my insurance. And I've received bills in the mail -- late I assume -- after they were paid by me or settled by insurance, confounding matters further.
Aloisius 3y ago
Transparency would be far more useful if it came before the service being rendered. Obviously there are some practical limits in exceptional cases, but I can't think of another industry that has high-price services where providing estimates isn't standard.
- danaris 3y ago
  The problem is that in many cases, there is no way for a patient to meaningfully review options, negotiate, or even consent prior to receiving treatment. For non-elective procedures, at best it's an "under duress" sort of deal. This is why healthcare should be provided for free at the point of service, paid for by the government. It works very, very well for many other countries. The only reason we haven't been able to make it work here is the rampant lobbying.
smileysteve 3y ago
Disagree. To follow the restaurant example above. And since the topic is debt, how do you think that affects the small private practice? The hospital, that has scheduled and contracted the doctor, on site, with the hospitals equipment is more able to have a loss column than an individual. This seems like something the IRS should fix; as all of the above makes the contractor an employee of the hospital. Can you imagine flying on a Delta flight and you have to pay a separate bill to a 3rd party maintenance company.

by petre 3y ago

ddoolin 3y ago

I don't agree with the last point and I think this thread is evidence of that. We cannot make sense of the myriad of bills we get from all the different providers, particularly since many or all of them are also being dealt with by our insurance and may have already been negotiated by the time we get the bills in the mail. To that point, I went to the ER a few months ago and I've probably received ten or so mailings for unpaid bills, only one of which I actually ended up owing, but my insurance didn't make the claims visible until they were settled which was months after the fact. To make matters worse, I can still log in and pay bills which were settled by my insurance. And I've received bills in the mail -- late I assume -- after they were paid by me or settled by insurance, confounding matters further.

Aloisius 3y ago

Transparency would be far more useful if it came before the service being rendered. Obviously there are some practical limits in exceptional cases, but I can't think of another industry that has high-price services where providing estimates isn't standard.

danaris 3y ago
The problem is that in many cases, there is no way for a patient to meaningfully review options, negotiate, or even consent prior to receiving treatment. For non-elective procedures, at best it's an "under duress" sort of deal. This is why healthcare should be provided for free at the point of service, paid for by the government. It works very, very well for many other countries. The only reason we haven't been able to make it work here is the rampant lobbying.

smileysteve 3y ago

Disagree. To follow the restaurant example above. And since the topic is debt, how do you think that affects the small private practice? The hospital, that has scheduled and contracted the doctor, on site, with the hospitals equipment is more able to have a loss column than an individual. This seems like something the IRS should fix; as all of the above makes the contractor an employee of the hospital. Can you imagine flying on a Delta flight and you have to pay a separate bill to a 3rd party maintenance company.