Do you have private health insurance...??

[Edwina's Secretary]

Yes - that's true. But you do have the option to go out of network.

Another thing that I find rather ludicrous, is what doctors are "allowed" to charge. I'm now on Medicare and supplemental insurance, and I questioned a recent bill for a routine follow-up visit with my primary care doc. I was charged $122 for a simple office visit, yet a sign in the reception area stated that rates were now $70 for the same. When I called the billing dept to question it, she told me that he charges me what Medicare "allows", and that the $70 was for cash patients with no insurance. So the government is allowing doctors to cause rates to be high. What's wrong with that picture??? Fortunately my supplemental picks up what Medicare doesn't pay, or I couldn't afford to go to a doctor either!

In an HMO you cannot go out of network and have any insurance coverage.

The doctors will charge medicare whatever their rate is...but usually the negotiated (PPO or HMO) rate is lower than what the uninsured or government insured pay.

[pomtzu]

The doctors will charge medicare whatever their rate is...but usually the negotiated (PPO or HMO) rate is lower than what the uninsured or government insured pay.

Yet my rate could be, and is, higher than another's, simply because Medicare has authorized x$ to be charged, and he is charging the max allowed by law. It isn't a set rate for a basic office visit for every patient, as it used to be "back in the good old days".