Do we dare discuss the Supreme Court decision re: Healthcare

[Lady's Human]

Not really Karen. Many insurance plans have doctor co-pays that are dependent on many factors. If you have met your deductible - and you could have a variety of doctors billing toward that deductible can make a difference in what you owe. Sadly, it is not at all unusual for a doctor's office to not be able to tell what the patient's co-pay is until they have processed the claim to the carrier and learned what the carrier is going to pay. Many plans vary what the co-pay will be based on the purpose of the visit as well.

Plans that have the same doctor co-pay regardless tend to be HMO type products.

Plans with variable co-pays are probably the most common these days as the insurance companies continue to look for ways to control costs and increase profits.

Don't blame the doctor's staff! It is just often not as easy as a quick computer search. I was in Kaiser HMO for a year and knew exactly what a doctor visit would cost. Now that I am back in a PPO (high deductible) I don't have a clue until the doctor files the claim and bills me.

(And if you wonder why I went back - I am tied to what the employer offers!)

This in a nutshell, is a huge fault with the current system.

It's why people wind up in bankruptcy for medical bills, hard to plan when you have no earthly idea what your expenses are going to be beyond some very, very vague guidelines, further exacerbated by the contractor shell game. (Well, yes, all our staff are PPO for your insurance, however, Dr XYZ isn't part of our staff, he/she contracts with us through Dewy, Screwem and Howe, and therefore aren't part of our PPO group. hat do you mean you didn't realize what you were agreeing to while you were in excruciating pain? We have your signature, it's valid.)

[Edwina's Secretary]

This in a nutshell, is a huge fault with the current system.

It's why people wind up in bankruptcy for medical bills, hard to plan when you have no earthly idea what your expenses are going to be beyond some very, very vague guidelines, further exacerbated by the contractor shell game. (Well, yes, all our staff are PPO for your insurance, however, Dr XYZ isn't part of our staff, he/she contracts with us through Dewy, Screwem and Howe, and therefore aren't part of our PPO group. hat do you mean you didn't realize what you were agreeing to while you were in excruciating pain? We have your signature, it's valid.)

A perfect description of a very, very imperfect situation! With our policy the deductible (as with most policy) is a family deductible so I would need to keep track of what the insurance has paid for my husband, what has not been paid, what will not be paid, how much I have spent so far this year, divided by two taken to the fifth power and the square root of 3.

I sympathize with the doctors as well. How can they predict their revenue? How do they know if they are being paid correctly?

I cannot imagine how the system could get much more screwed up!

[RICHARD]

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/par...183800609.html


Healthcare!

[pomtzu]

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/par...183800609.html


Healthcare!

Pretty damn scary. I wonder if the parents had insurance, and if they didn't, that it made a difference in the "care" the boy received.

[Karen]

A friend of mine, employed and with health insurance, was sent home from the emergency room after a fall in which he fractured vertebrae in his neck. He wasn't even given a brace. He has been in a wheelchair ever since getting taking back to a different hospital a few hours later. Yes, lawsuits were filed. Negligence happens, with or without health care insurance. He is still working on rehab and now can walk a few steps with a walker, but it has literally been years.

[Cataholic]

Negligence happens, of course. Insurance has nothing to do with it. Karen, your friend's situation sounds like negligence. The link Richard provided just sounds ridiculous, beyond negligence- but of course there isn't (unless you consider gross negligence). And, according to some on here, these parents should just 'suck it up', as no amount of money will bring back their precious child. Not a position I agree with, from both a maternal and legal position.

This totally drives home my own personal crusade- doctors simply don't know everything. I read on here, and in the news, what people do and don't do because their doctor told them so, and I am stunned. It is like the patient has no brain function!!! They give some really bad advice. I, personally, would have created such a stink at the hospital that something further would have been done. I know my own child, I know my own body, and if something isn't right- something isn't right. Far better to spend MORE on TOO much care than walk away, because a doctor told me everything was ok.

Poor parents, and all the people that loved this little boy. A needless death.

[RICHARD]

"Go to the ER..."

Sloppy medical practices kill more people that we will ever know.

--------------------

One common problem with people who must see a doc/phys/surgeon?

Ask questions.

Don't be a jerk and diagnose yourself based on an article, TV show or what happened to Uncle Chester in 1972.

----------------

Jackie Speier, a politician from CA was on the tube today saying that the Obamacare model touting 'Preventative Doc Visits' was a wonderful thing.

Ask a provider about their schedule. Then try to get people to go see a doc for a preventative checkup.

It's a nice model and wonderful way to believe that this will solve all the problems we have in providing a low cost service to the masses.

-------------------


Good physicians/surgeons/doctors are hard to find.

They put quite a bit of time into getting a sheepskin to take care of people.

This Obamacare BS ( I love how the media changed it into the ACA, after the SC voted it into reality )
is going to put a huge pox on the HC industry. It's going to chase away some of the best people we have practicing medicine.

Years ago there was a shortage of OB docs because of malpractice insurane/rates/suits.

I wonder how many docs will drop out when the gov't. becomes more and more involved in the HC industry.

The same people who didn't want Big Brother to interfere with their private lives are jumping with joy now that the gov't. is going into the HC biz.

I love it.